please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message this article needs to be updated . please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . april 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message bt ireland type subsidiary industry telecommunications founded 1990 parent bt group website bt ireland bt ni bt communications ireland limited is a telecommunications and internet company in ireland . it is a subsidiary of bt group plc. contents 1 history 1.1 esat telecom 1.2 esat bt 1.3 bt ireland 2 esat digifone 3 see also 4 references 4.1 sources 4.2 citations 5 external links history edit esat telecom edit esat telecom logo used from 1990 until 2002 . the company was founded in 1990 by a constortium headed by business magnate denis o brien and was originally known as esat telecom . the name esat said to be an abbreviation of ireann satellite and connected to o brien s bid for ireland s communications satellite licence under the 1977 itu frequency plans would become much more associated with telcommunications in ireland however . esat telecom applied a number of times for a telecommunications licence to the department of communications and was finally granted a limited one in march 1993 . the company officially launched its services on 20 april 1994 . it was the first domestic competitor to bord telecom ireann now eircom and after initially reselling leased lines from that company used autodiallers to route calls onto its network . these devices proved controversial with telecom threatening legal action and the department contending that these were a breach of esat s limited licence . however an esat complaint to the european commission was upheld and eventually in 1997 the new director of telecommunications regulation now called comreg regularised esat s position by ordering telecom ireann to provide a service to switch calls onto esat s network . in 1996 esat telecom in conjunction with telenor ab bid successfully for the second gsm mobile telecommunications licence against five other consortia . this became known as esat digifone . the moriarty tribunal found in 2008 that the awarding of the licence was influenced by payments made by o brien to michael lowry the minister for transport energy and communications . on 7 november 1997 esat telecom group plc held an initial public offering and was listed on the irish stock exchange london stock exchange and nasdaq stock market . originally the company targeted just corporate customers but from 1 december 1998 when the irish telecommunications market was fully deregulated domestic customers were also targeted under the esat clear brand name . 1 300 customers signed up before it had even launched . in 1999 esat entered the internet service provider market initially through the purchase of eunet ireland which became esat net . however it was the acquisition of ireland on line from an post that year which made esat the biggest isp in the country for a time . also in 1999 esat bid for cablelink limited the cable and television company owned jointly by telecom ireann and rt . however ntl won . in 1999 esat telecom was the first wholly owned irish company to lay two optical submarine cables between ireland and the uk . no other company had achieved such a milestone and since then only operators from outside the state have managed to install their own optical submarine cables . esat bt edit esat bt logo used from 2002 until 2005 . in 1999 relations became tense between esat and telenor over how esat digifone their mobile joint venture should be operated . telenor tried to remove denis o brien as chairman of esat digifone and remove the esat name from the company . esat for its part retaliated by threatening to sue telenor and making repeated offers to buy the norwegian company out . eventually in november 1999 telenor bid for the entire share capital of esat telecom group plc as a way of solving the situation . the bid was rejected by the esat board and so became a hostile takeover attempt . in order to defend this in january 2000 british telecommunications plc now bt group plc made a friendly takeover offer for the company which was backed by the esat board . esat became a wholly owned subsidiary of bt and was delisted from the stock market . when bt acquired esat they began integrating the business along with its northern ireland subsidiary bt ni . the combined unit was then registered as bt communications ireland limited . the company s main business is in fixed line telcommunications where it owns its own network in northern ireland and owns a network built along the iarnr d ireann rail network in the republic of ireland and along the road which complementes its rail network . the network build phase started in august 1997 and it also leases capacity from its fixed line incumbent eircom . following the company s acquisition by bt esat telecom was rebranded as esat bt in 2002 and replaced its own logo with the bt piper . bt ireland edit in late 2004 it was announced from april 2005 the name of the company would change from esat bt to just bt ireland . the company has performed well winning some high profile corporate clients . however eircom still when commands over a 73 % share of fixed line telecommunications in the republic of ireland . all company names in the esat bt group were officially re registered with the companies registration office as bt in march 2005 and on 12 april the company was officially rebranded as bt ireland . on 22 july 2009 bt ireland agreed to transfer most of its consumer and small business operations in ireland other than its remaining dial up internet operations to vodafone ireland . large industrial and commercial customers will remain with bt . under the partnership vodafone will provide voice and broadband internet services over bt s network . 1 the deal is subject to the competition authority s approval . bt ireland do not own any infrastructure in northern ireland being owned by bt group uk directly . esat digifone edit main article o2 ireland esat digifone a gsm mobile phone network which was the first competitor to eircell then a telecom ireann subsidiary was originally a joint venture between esat telecom and telenor however when esat was sold to bt the mobile division became part of bt wireless which was eventually spun off as o2 which in turn was bought 1 by spanish based telef nica in 2005 eu approved 2 in 2006 . the company is now officially registered as telef nica o2 ireland limited but trades as o2 . in june 2013 hutchison whampoa announced it would acquire the irish arm of o2 for 780m . 2 o2 is now merged with hutchison whampoa s subsidiary three ireland following the completion of the sale . 3 see also edit list of irish companies communications in ireland bt young scientist and technology exhibition references edit sources edit this article includes a list of references but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations . please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations . april 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message o kelly brendan 2001 the esat story . dublin gill and macmillan . citations edit http www.btireland.ie pr 2009 07 22 vodafone.shtml external links edit bt ireland bt northern ireland v t e bt group divisions and subsidiaries current bt business bt consumer bt global services bt wholesale bt research bt ireland bt italia ee dabs.com openreach plusnet former madasafish merged into plusnet hibu formerly yell group manx telecom o2 germany o2 ireland o2 united kingdom ribbit telecomsoft telfort products and services current bt broadband bt infinity bt mobile bt tv bt sport bt sport espn bt wi fi bt mydonate bt home hub bt voyager adsl max defunct telecom gold buildings and facilities current adastral park bt centre bt tower london bt tower birmingham stokenchurch bt tower bt tower swansea charwelton bt tower goonhilly cornwall guardian exchange manchester heaton park bt tower national network management centre peterborough transmitting station purdown bt tower pye green bt tower stadium house cardiff sutton common bt tower tinshill bt tower tolsford hill bt tower wotton under edge bt tower former anchor telephone exchange bletchley park faraday building horwood house kingsway telephone exchange post office research station sheffield telephone house microwave network programmes and standards current 21cn digital access signalling system 1 digital access signalling system 2 system x system y defunct txe other bt archives bt museum bt digital music awards bt sport action woman awards bt site engineering code buzby concert connected earth people post office telecommunications young scientist and technology exhibition customer service system category retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bt ireland & oldid 733963573 categories telecommunications companies of the republic of irelandinternet companies of the republic of irelandinternet companies of irelandhidden categories articles needing additional references from april 2016all articles needing additional referenceswikipedia articles in need of updating from april 2016all wikipedia articles in need of updatingvague or ambiguous time from april 2016articles lacking in text citations from april 2016all articles lacking in text citations navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout 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