TELECOMS: The ESB is to re-enter the telecoms market later this year and will offer telecoms and internet services, sparking further competition in the sector.
The ESB's entry follows the telecoms regulator's decision to award it a licence and will also mean the company will be competing with British Telecom, once its joint-venture partner in the Ocean telecoms venture.
The firm's move into the broadband market will bring high-speed telecoms and internet capacity to the regions at lower prices than are currently available. The ESB has confirmed it is studying the tender documents for third-generation (3G) mobile licences and may seek a partner to make a joint bid.
International mobile firms Hutchison Whampoa and Vivendi are potential partners for the ESB in an upcoming 3G competition for four Irish licences.
Mr John McSweeney, general manager of ESB Telecoms, the subsidiary in charge of its telecoms strategy, said the ESB's infrastructure would offer a 3G applicant significant advantages.
He said the ESB would not be an applicant for a 3G licence on its own but would be interested in supporting a 3G application.
"We believe our backbone fibre and our network of tower sites offers a significant advantage to an applicant wanting to get started quickly," Mr McSweeney said.
He said the ESB was carefully evaluating 3G documents issued by the telecoms regulator but stressed the ESB board had not yet approved even a joint-venture bid.
Mr McSweeney said the ESB had been awarded a basic telecoms licence by the regulator and would begin offering services by mid- 2002. "The licence will allow us to offer services, when we are ready, to other telecoms carriers and other major customers," he said.
He said the firm had completed 450 kilometres of its southern broadband loop between Dublin, Waterford, Limerick and Cork.
The completion of the ESB national broadband network is set to reduce costs of high-speed telecoms capacity outside Dublin.
The projected ESB national network is a 1,300 kilometre "figure of eight" loop that runs from Donegal to Waterford and Cork. Mr McSweeney said the £40 million (€50.8 million) network should be complete by the end of the first quarter 2003. Foot-and- mouth disease had impeded the firm's roll-out of its network early last year, he added.
The ESB is able to build its network comparatively quickly by using a technique of wrapping telecoms fibre around its existing electricity network. This is similar to that used by British firm Energis.
The Government is providing grants of about €15 million (£13 million) to support the construction of ESB's national network under the National Development Plan.
The ESB's last foray into the telecoms arena netted the firm an £86 million gain from the sale of its stake in Ocean to British Telecom. But the market for telecoms and broadband services is much tougher now - several firms supplying such services went bankrupt last year. Mr McSweeney acknowledged the telecoms market was more difficult than when it was previously operating in the market, but he believed it would recover.
See also page 8
