Carphone Warehouse to invest €6 million in new data centre

Carphone Warehouse will invest €6 million in a new data centre to power its own mobile service.

The mobile phone retail chain will begin operating a mobile service from next July. The new data centre will house the technical infrastructure to operate the new service.

The Dublin-based data centre, which will officially open in January, will be supported by technology from global telecoms manufacturers Huawei and Mvneco.

The significant investment reflects the ambitious plans Carphone Warehouse has for a new mobile operator, said Peter Scott, Carphone Warehouse Ireland's managing director.

“Our plan is to offer a highly innovative, next-generation service that is currently not available in today’s mobile market,” he said.

“To fully realise this, and to support the massive amounts of data generated by consumer mobile use, we require dependable, future-proof technology.”

He said the new mobile operator will represent a total investment of €30 million and will lead to the creation of up to 50 full-time jobs.

The new operator, which is targeting up to 6 per cent of the market within the first five years, will have its own distinct brand and dedicated network capacity, Mr Scott said.

“We believe that the blend of our retail footprint, mobile expertise, consumer credentials, and professional team leaves us well placed to make a real impact in the Irish mobile market,” he added.

Carphone Warehouse, based in the UK, has had retail operations in Ireland since 1996. It operates 91 stores here, which currently employ more than 700 people. The company has more than 1,700 stores across Europe.

The retail chain will provide mobile services using 3’s network, in a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) arrangement.

As part of Three's purchase of O2 Ireland, the European Commission said the mobile company would have to provide network capacity to two MVNOs in order to facilitate competition in the market. The new service will be launched next July

Carphone Warehouse already operates an MVNO service in Britain on Vodafone’s network using the brand Talkmobile.