Glory days may be over for mobile operatorsThe two big players in the Irish mobile phone industry, Vodafone and O2, have had a pretty torrid time over the past three months due to a spate of embarrassing overcharging debacles.The two big players in the Irish mobile phone industry, Vodafone and O2, have had a pretty torrid time over the past three months due to a spate of embarrassing overcharging debacles.

About 170,000 customers were overcharged for a range of calls by the operators, both of which only acknowledged the problem publicly after media queries prompted by their customers.

There are signs that the glory days may be coming to an end for the mobile giants, which generate massive profits in the Republic for their British parents.

Performance indicators published this week by O2 mirror similar figures published by Vodafone recently in showing a fall in average revenue per user (ARPU), a key metric used to measure growth.

The figures show Irish mobile phone users spend on average €556 per year, down from €559 three months earlier. This may not sound a lot but it suggests the mobile industry in the State may have hit a revenue plateau.

O2 blamed a decision to strip out revenue from insurance for the fall off in ARPU, while Vodafone blamed a decision to strip out revenues from utility meters.

But Current Account suspects the recent focus on prices and competition from Meteor may be hurting the two industry leaders.

There are also signs that the new generation of data services may not be taking off in the Republic.

The percentage of revenue generated by data for O2 fell to 21.8 per cent in the three months to the end of June, down from 23.6 per cent in the prior quarter. And just a fifth of O2's customer base are using non-SMS data services.

With competition about to get hotter following the entry of a fourth operator, Hutchison 3G, in the market this year, O2 and Vodafone will have to hope they can improve on customer relations.

Could Denis O'Brien be changing his tune?

Current Account noted this week that one of the radio consortiums fighting to win the licence for an alternative rock service in Dublin had some uncomplimentary things to say about the current radio scene.

The Raw consortium, which includes the likes of Greg Sparks and former Yahoo executive Lee Thompson, said its research indicated that hip, young consumers were "disenfranchised with the pop-saturated offerings of licensed and unlicensed radio stations in Dublin".

There is probably more than a grain of truth in that. But who exactly is this Raw consortium?

One of its shareholders is Communicorp, the company owned by Denis O'Brien, probably the city's most successful radio entrepreneur. Denis knows a lot about radio, but he has tended to make his money from... you guessed it "pop-saturated offerings" such 98 FM and Spin. So what are we to make of the comments?

Could it be that even Denis is getting tired of the bland radio fare available nowadays in the Dublin market?

Bank's words of warning for airline investors

German carrier Lufthansa is the latest airline to be tipped as an investor in Aer Lingus. In its European Airline Review, US bank Citigroup Smith Barney speculates that the German carrier might use some of the cash raised in its recent, and not very popular, rights issue to take a stake in Aer Lingus.

But the Irish airline is just one of a number of candidates for Teutonic largesse with Swiss, bmi British Midland, Spainair, LOT and TAP also in the frame.

More interestingly are the bank's comments on airlines buying airlines which can be applied, one suspects, to investing in airlines generally.

"We are not particularly positive about airline acquisitions. Yes, they help consolidate a fragmented, dysfunctional industry - which benefits other carriers too - but airline investments have rarely generated positive returns," says the bank.

In fact, the German airline would probably be better off spending its money buying maintenance and repair operations in Europe and Asia, it concludes.

Food for thought for chief executive Willie Walsh and the legions of others apparently queuing to take a stake in Aer Lingus.