DUBLIN, Ireland-There was some bad news this week for supporters of greater competition in the Irish mobile-phone market, when the latest sectoral report revealed that third operator Meteor has lost market share, even though the overall number of subscribers has increased.
Figures from ComReg, the newly appointed successor to the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR), showed that Ireland passed the 3 million mark for the number of mobile-phone subscribers during the third quarter of 2002. There were approximately 2.7 million customers at the end of September 2001.
But while Vodafone has maintained its 57-percent share and O2 has slightly increased its share to 40 percent, Meteor has lost one-quarter of its market share and now controls just 3 percent of the market-about 90,000 customers.
The only consolation for Meteor is that Ireland still has the highest average revenue per user (ARPU) levels in the European Union at 44 euro (US$43.9) per month.
