Telecom Éireann

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Telecom Éireann
State-Owned Company
Industry Telecommunications
Fate Privatised
Successor Eircom
Founded 1984
Defunct 1999
Headquarters Dublin 2
Area served
 Ireland
Products Landline
Revenue IR£788 million 1993
Number of employees
 ~13,100
Divisions Eircell

Telecom Éireann (Irish pronunciation: [tʲɛlʲɛkəmˠ ˈeːrʲən̪ˠ], meaning "Telecommunications of Ireland") was an Irish state-owned telecommunications company from 1983 to 1999. Prior to then a telephone and postal service was provided by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs (known as "P and T"), as part of the civil service. Telecom Éireann was established by the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act, 1983; its full formal title was "Bord Telecom Éireann or, in the English language, The Irish Telecommunications Board".[nb 1] "Telecom Éireann" may be translated as "Telecom of Ireland". In 1999 the company was privatised and renamed as Eircom.

Upgrading the network

A manhole cover photographed in 2009, dating from the Telecom Éireann network upgrade.

Telecom Éireann rolled out digital telephone switching technology, across the country along with an extensive fibre optic and digital microwave backbone. Two digital switching systems were selected; CIT-Alcatel's E10 and Ericsson's AXE telephone exchange. Digital technology quickly replaced analogue systems at national and major regional switching centres and new international gateway switches were installed. The oldest electromechanical step-by-step exchanges and manual operator-manned local exchanges were the first to be converted to digital technology. More modern electromechanical crossbar exchanges, using Ericsson ARF technology dating from the 1960s and 1970s were converted to digital bit by bit through the late 1980s and early 1990s. These crossbar switches were capable of providing voice service that was comparable to digital switching technology.

By the early 1990s, the Irish network was amongst the most modern and most digitalised in the world and by the mid 1990s had become 100% digitally switched.

The company also did a major upgrade to the payphone network in the late 1980s, which saw the rollout of smart card based payphones across Ireland. The Telecom Éireann CallCard was one of the earliest implementations chip-based cards in the world.

Eircell

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Main article: Eircell

Telecom Éireann launched Eircell (now Vodafone Ireland) in 1984, with operations commencing in 1986. The company deployed a national mobile telephone network based on a first generation mobile technology known as the Total Access Communication System, or TACS for short. This technology, similar to AMPS, was also used in the UK by Vodafone and Cellnet. Eircell launched their digital network based on GSM technology from Ericsson in 1993. GSM service rapidly replaced the TACS network as customers migrated over to new digital technology. Within a few years, the TACS network was obsolete and taken off air.

Other divisions

  • Minitel Ireland

The company introduced a Minitel videotext system into Ireland in 1992 but due to poor uptake and lack of interesting services, it faded from public attention quickly. A number of other companies came together in 1988 with a plan to use the system for shopping and information. Minitel services were ultimately withdrawn completely due to lack of interest.

  • Telecom Internet

In 1997 Telecom Éireann established Telecom Internet, the Internet service provider the company rapidly became one of the partners in the Internet Neutral Exchange and is today known as Eircom net.

  • Eirpage

Telecom Éireann established Eirpage, a national paging system in Ireland.

This system was then controlled and operated by Voxpro Communications, formerly Pageboy (www.voxpro.ie) until the closure of the National Paging System in August 2011.

  • Eirpac

Launched in 1984 to replace Euronet, Eirpac is the Irish public switched data network supporting X.25 and X.28

  • TEIS (Telecom Éireann Information Systems)

This unit sold business systems and office telephone systems to business customers.

  • TeleCentre - this was Telecom Éireann's retail arm, which was later renamed Eircom Store and then shut down as Eircom moved away from physical customer contact centres. Since the closure of the stores, customers can only contact Eircom online or by telephone.
  • Phonewatch - Provides monitored alarm services to both residential and business customers. The company was rebranded as Eircom PhoneWatch. It is one of the largest players in the Irish home security market and was sold to a Norwegian company in 2012.

Privatisation

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Main article: Eircom

Telecom Éireann was privatised in 1999 and renamed as Eircom plc. It was later split into Eircell 2000 plc (Eircell), the mobile networks business, and Eircom, the fixed-line business which also inherited other minor divisions, such as the Eirpage pager system and the Telecom retail arm. Eircell was sold to Vodafone in May 2001, and later changed its name to the dual-brand Eircell Vodafone before becoming Vodafone Ireland.[2]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. "Bord Telecom Éireann" is misspelled "Board Telecom Éireann" in the relevant clause in the online text; it is spelled correctly in the printed text[1] and elsewhere in the online text.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Popular culture

In the BBC TV series Coupling, a phone with a Telecom Éireann logo appears in the episode "Gotcha". In the Channel 4 Series Father Ted(Speed 3) a Telecom Éireann kiosk is seen near the end.

External links

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