telecommunications founded 1999 headquarters 1hsq st. john s road dublin 8 d08 a9rt ireland key people richard moate ceo padraig mcmanus non executive chairman products telephone mobile telecommunications internet digital tv revenue 1.265 billion fy 14 15 1.3 billion fy 15 16e owner eir holdings ltd. number of employees 3 454 subsidiaries meteor mobile communications open eir eir business ni eircom net isp lan communications eir uk eir mobile eir vision slogan live life on eir website eir.ie eircom limited trading as eir is a fixed mobile and broadband telecommunications company in ireland and a former state owned monopolist . it is the largest telecommunications operator in the republic with a division to service the business and corporate telecom markets in northern ireland and britain . as bord telecom ireann the company was state owned until 1999 when it was floated on the irish and new york stock exchanges . eir operates the fixed line telephone network an lte 4g hsdpa 3g and gsm edge 2.75 g mobile telephone network meteor acquired from alltel western wireless in 2005 and acts as an internet service provider isp eircom.net . as of q1 2013 eircom had 54 % market share of fixed voice lines ; 40 % market share of fixed broadband ; 11 % of mobile broadband ; and 17 % of mobile . 1 by late 2007 eircom added their 500 000th dsl subscriber but broadband share may have fallen to 44 % due to growth of fixed wireless cable and fibre services . 2 its main competitors are virgin media ireland which operates a cable tv & broadband network vodafone ireland which bought bt ireland s residential customer base on 22 july 2009 and is accessed through eir s network and bt ireland s fibre imagine communications irish broadband & gaelic telecom and magnet networks and smart telecom with a mix of llu glump from eircom and fibre . contents 1 services 2 history 2.1 disposal of eircell going private and reflotation 2.2 return to mobile acquisition of meteor 2.3 acquisition of setanta sports and launch of eir sport 3 businesses 3.1 eir mobile mvno 3.2 eir business ireland 3.3 eir business ni 3.4 television 4 competition 5 controversy 6 copyright enforcement 6.1 blocking of the pirate bay 6.2 disconnection 7 examinership 8 see also 9 references 10 external links services edit eir telephone exchange in roches street limerick eir operates the largest fixed line telecommunications network in the republic of ireland under licence from the commission for communications regulation . most homes and businesses in the state are dependent on their network . a range of telecommunications services is provided on the network including business ip its mpls platform . eir have also completed a wholly owned fibre network ring around northern ireland and another around belfast . their isp division eir net provides dial up services as well as broadband services see broadband roll out below . any alarm monitoring products using sms are hardcoded to work with eir s smsc so will not work on digiweb bt smart upc or magnet phone networks . dect sms handsets are also preprogrammed for eir s smsc . any competing phone service that is not just carrier pre selection cps of eir must provide their own smsc but even when they do consumers may be unable to migrate from eir due to smsc numbers in equipment that can not be reprogrammed . citation needed eir s mobile arm meteor provides a full range of hspa 3g and gsm based mobile communication services throughout the republic of ireland . its gsm network operates at 1800 mhz and 900 mhz ranges as the earlier gsm licences fully utilised the 900 mhz band . gprs and edge data services are also available . meteor have when launched hspa 3g mobile broadband services in dublin cork dundalk and drogheda . meteor provides both bill pay contract and pre pay non contract plans and has approximately 19 % of the irish mobile market with 1 032 000 cellular subscribers on the meteor network . the company has used edge technology on its network and has received a 3g umts license formally removed from eir s competitor smart telecom this required 33 % of the population to be covered by 3g by september 2008 . as an operator with significant market power eir is required to provide a number of wholesale products to other operators and to switch calls onto other phone networks . many broadband products offered by other operators are resales of the eir product . a series of telephone directories is distributed annually to all households in the republic of ireland . the six annual directories list numbers in the local dialling area 01 02 04 05 06 or 07 09 regardless of whether the telephone service to the number is provided by eir or by one of its competitors . mobile numbers are not listed . the commission for communications regulation comreg has designated eir as the organisation that has the obligation to provide a national directory database ndd and a universal white pages uwp directory ; the unit within eir responsible for providing these is the national directory information unit ndiu . 3 history edit telecom ireann manhole cover the company was formed in 1984 as bord telecom ireann under the posts and telecommunications act 1983 . this article deals mainly with the post privatisation eir ; for details of the company during its time as a state sponsored body see telecom ireann . from 1991 to 2013 eir s subsidiaries included phonewatch then known as eircom phonewatch which provides home monitoring services monitored burglar alarms fire alarms cctv systems and medical alert devices . in may 2013 it announced that phonewatch had been sold to oslo based company sector alarm corporation . 4 from 2000 to 2008 eircom sponsored the league of ireland . although eu laws required the opening of the irish telecommunications market ireland had a derogation from competition until 2003 . telecom ireann was privatised this was very controversial and subject to much debate . the process began in 1995 and by july 1999 the government had disposed of virtually all of its shareholding . 5 eircom plc was then floated on the irish london and new york stock exchanges on 8 july 1999 and small first time investors were encouraged by the irish government to buy shares . the share price was set at 3.90 later reaching a high of 4.80 a 23 % increase . those initial investors who held onto their shares until july 2000 received a 4 % bonus share allocation . the eircom flotation is considered to have been an example of a stock market bubble after the initial hype of the flotation died down the stock price fell rapidly . many of the 500 000 small investors were angered by the significant financial loss they incurred blaming the government for not sufficiently warning them of the risks inherent in stock market investment . since privatisation eir s penetration of landlines has fallen from 82 % to 69 % . during this period there has been a large increase in mobile phone ownership and a significant rise in line rental to the highest in europe . citation needed disposal of eircell going private and reflotation edit logo of eircom used from 1999 until 16 september 2015 in 2001 eircom sold its mobile subsidiary eircell to vodafone . the company was transferred to a separate entity eircell 2000 plc which was then sold to vodafone through a share swap . eircom shareholders got eircell share in a 1000 1 ratio . the conversion rate was then 0.9478 vodafone shares for every 2 eircell 2000 shares . this left the eircom shareholder with shares in both eircom and vodafone . after the sale of eircell eircom itself was believed to be undervalued and became the subject of a bidding war between two consortia the e island consortium headed by denis o brien and the valentia consortium headed by tony o reilly the chairman of independent news and media . eventually in november 2001 the company agreed to a recommended offer of 1.335 per eircom share . eircom plc was delisted from the stock exchange became eircom limited a private limited company by shares and a subsidiary of valentia and o reilly took the reins as executive chairman a role he pursued with vigour even holding management meetings at his castlemartin home . on 19 march 2004 the company returned to the stock market although the company being listed eircom group plc was in fact a new holding company and was registered in england and wales rather than the republic of ireland . the company floated at 1.55 a share but dipped on initial trading before recovering to trade above its float price . return to mobile acquisition of meteor edit logo of meteor in early 2005 several irish newspapers reported that meteor mobile communications the third mobile phone operator was up for sale by its owners western wireless . it was considered that this afforded eircom an opportunity to re enter the mobile communications market . on 9 july 2005 the irish times reported three bidders for meteor eircom smart telecom and a consortium led by denis o brien . on 14 july 2005 rt news reported on their business website that denis o brien had withdrawn from bidding and that it was understood that eircom was the top bidder at 410 million . on 21 july it was announced that smart telecom had also withdrawn leaving eircom as the sole bidder . eircom announced the agreement to purchase it on 25 july 2005 at a cost of 420m . 6 as of 31 december 2012 meteor had over 1 086 000 customers and a market share of 20 % offering both gsm and 3g mobile telephony and broadband services . 7 in may 2006 eircom announced its sale to the australian investment group babcock and brown as part of a deal worth 2.4 billion . the employee share ownership trust which represents workers at the company was to remain a minority shareholder . the sale was approved by shareholders on 26 july 2006 and at close of business on 17 august 2006 the shares were delisted from the official lists of the irish stock exchange and the london stock exchange ending eircom s second period on the stock markets . the same day phillip nolan resigned as chief executive of eircom and on 1 september rex comb was officially named as the new ceo . tony o reilly resigned as chairman and was replaced by pierre danon previously of bt group plc and jp morgan chase . babcock and brown have since collapsed as a company and their bcm vehicle which owns over 50 % of eir broke all ties with the former parent and rebranded themselves as eircom holdings limited . 8 eircom was also successful in bidding for a 4g lte license from comreg which permitted meteor and emobile to launch 4g services in 2013 . 9 in september 2015 eircom announced that it would re brand as eir as part of a new imaging campaign developed by moving brands . described as being dynamic and modern the new brand was adopted across most of eircom s businesses excluding meteor and an advertising campaign was introduced to promote the new name and slogan live life on eir . 10 acquisition of setanta sports and launch of eir sport edit eir sport previously setanta sports commenced broadcasting on july 5 2016 following the takeover of setanta sports by eir . two irish commercial stations eir sport 1 formerly setanta ireland and eir sport 2 formerly setanta sports 1 join bt sport 1 bt sport 2 bt sport europe and bt sport espn to make up the 6 channel eir sport pack . setanta sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the