Mobile leads Irish broadband growth

DUBLIN—The Irish are embracing mobile broadband services using both 3G cellular technology and mobile WiMAX, according to statistics from the government’s Commission for Communications Regulation, or ComReg, the equivalent of the U.S.’s Federal Communications Commission.
With a penetration rate of 117%, and nearly 79% of those subscriptions prepaid, Ireland’s wireless market is mature. The country’s largest operator is Vodafone Ireland; followed by Telefonica O2 Ireland; Meteor, a wholly owned subsidiary of landline operator eircom; and Hutchison Group’s 3. The country saw a slight decline in overall market revenues and voice traffic during the second quarter, with voice traffic down 1.2% to 4.6 billion minutes and revenues down 4% to 1 billion Euros.
Broadband subscriptions were up slightly, at 3.1%, to 1.3 million subscriptions, including land-based and wireless broadband connections, with a penetration rate of about 29.5%. Mobile broadband is the fastest-growing segment of the broadband market, accounting for 28% of subscriptions. Fixed wireless access contributes 9%, while DSL connections make up the lion’s share of the market. Interestingly, cable connectivity is not a big player in the nation because 40% of the country is rural, so cable connections are only available in five cities. “Mobile broadband has had a huge impact in the last year and a quarter. No one expected such a huge uptake, not even the mobile companies,” said Alex Chisholm, a ComReg commissioner.
The country took a slightly different tack in rolling out fixed wireless access licenses in 2003, finding it had better luck offering local licenses in small service areas of 20 kilometers. The result has been 13 operators today holding around 180 licenses at 3.5 GHz, 10.5 GHz, and using 26 GHz frequency for backhaul. This is where the the mobile WiMAX space is taking off: Clearwire Corp. offers pre-WiMAX service and also has licenses at 3.5 GHz. Imagine Communications Group, which has support from Google Inc., just launched its mobile WiMAX service in October, using Motorola Inc. equipment.
The country plans to transition to digital TV in 2012, freeing up more spectrum when that move takes place, said Jim Connolly, radio spectrum advisor to ComReg. The company was going to take back the spectrum at the end of the year, but now is considering pushing it up to the beginning of 2012. The Irish government is technology-neutral going forward in that it doesn’t require a specific technology be used in a specific band, which was the case with 2G GSM licenses at 900 MHz. The country is also freeing up spectrum in the UFH band, with a competition set for 2010 to offer mobile TV in the band, as well as competitions scheduled for next year at 2.3 GHz.