O2 Ireland

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O2 Ireland is a GSM mobile telecommunications operator in the Republic of Ireland. It is a subsidiary of O2 plc.

1 Products and Services
2 History
- 2.1 Telefonica takeover
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Products and Services

Currently the company is the second largest mobile phone operator in the Republic of Ireland with approximately 40% market share or 1.6 million customers (see communications in Ireland). The company's STD prefix is 086, but following the introduction of full number portability, some O2 numbers now feature 087, 085 or 083 prefixes.

The company provides WAP services under the O2 Active brand. In October 2005, O2 Ireland launched a version of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service. The company holds a UMTS licence, and was the third Irish operator to offer 3G services, after Vodafone Ireland and 3 Ireland, offering services in some built-up areas in late 2006.

[edit] History

The company was originally a joint venture between Esat Telecom Group, headed up by Denis O'Brien, and Telenor, and was originally known as Esat Digifone. In 1997, it became the second company to be awarded a GSM licence in Ireland. In 2000 BT took over Esat Telecom (at the same time, taking over the Telenor shareholding in Digifone) and later demerged the mobile unit from the fixed line system which is now called BT Ireland. For a brief period the company was simply called Digifone, but following the spin off of mmO2 from BT, the company was renamed O2 Ireland.

[edit] Telefonica takeover

On 31 October 2005 it was announced that Telefónica SA, the Spanish telephone operator, had made a recommended takeover bid for O2 Ireland's parent company, O2 plc. This has been approved by shareholders and O2 was officially purchased in mid February 2006. According to the takeover announcement, O2 will for the present retain its current brand and be run from the UK, however future integration of the group with Telefónica's own mobile phone brand, movistar, cannot be ruled out.