Taipan,
A few comments on Esat :
The problem in Ireland is that the state telecommunication company still holds a monopoly on most of the market. Esat, along with a number of other smaller carriers and the Irish operations of large multi-national carriers (Worldcom, BT) fight it out currently only for the more lucrative business sector. Ireland has a vast group of US and European multi-national operations, particularly call centres, (e.g. DELL, Gateway, American Airlines) in the country which need leased lines etc. back to their corporate HQs\networks. Thus the revenue generated by having only a few of these large customers can be quite substantial. I vaguely remember reading recently that Esat are currently laying their own high speed network around Dublin to overcome the problem of getting "overcharged" by having to lease lines from the state company in order to carry Esat's own traffic. A full national network is also being planned by the company in the near future.
Also, Esat has recently launched a low cost international (pre-paid card)call service aimed at private individuals in Ireland which is likely to generate additional revenue given the exorbitant international (not to mention national rates) currently being charged by the state monopoly. Full deregulation of the telecoms market in Ireland has been put by the EU until 1999 (I may be incorrect on the exact date). At this stage Esat will probably look for the "juicer" parts of the Irish home telephony market. Esat has also recently bought into a Irish ISP but this market is Ireland is only just estabhlishing itself.
Probably the jewel in the Esat crown is Esat Digifone where they have a minority (I think!) but very substantial shareholding. This company operates Ireland's second GSM mobile network and, in little over a year of operation, has gained over 160,000 subscribers, particularly in the corporate market. This may seem small by US standards but in a population of 3.5 million, and given that your only competitor has had a 5-10 headstart, it is quite noteworthy. In addition, (in my opinion) they have shown themselves to be far more innovative and customer oriented in their approach to the market than their competitor (which is a subsidary of the state telecom company).
Overall a good company but with deregulation imminent, it needs to estabhlish itself in its market before the big guns arrive and divide up the cake amongst themselves.
L. |
