HISTORY OF TELECOMMS IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
The whole of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom until 1922, when the war of independence resulted us the twenty-six counties of the provinces of Connaught, Leinster and Munster becoming the Irish Free State. The six counties of the Province of Ulster remained with Great Britain. Over the next sixty years, the Irish Post Office was subject to constant revision.
The Department of Posts and Telegraphs was divided on the 1st January 1984, and two new state-owned limited companies, An Post and Telecom Eireann began operation. TE was divided into eight districts, each controlled by a District Manager, and further divided into areas. The Districts are Dublin (Cumberland House, Fenian Street), Cork (Lapps Quay), Drogheda, Galway (Mervue), Limerick (Estuary House, Henry Street), Portlaoise (Knockmay), Sligo (Rathedmond) and Waterford (Johnstown).
Eircom PLC
This company was floated on the Irish, London and New York stock exchanges on 8th July 1999 and changed its corporate identity from Telecom Eireann to Eircom on 6th September 1999. Eircom has an advanced network with fully digital exchanges. The Irish market was completely liberalised in December 1998 and now has one of the most open markets in the EU. Its strategic objective is to strengthen its position as the principal provider of communication services in Ireland and to become the recognised provider of selected services in the extended home market of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as other locations where Eircom has existing customers or traffic. 35% of the equity is owned by Comsource, a company owned by KPN Telecom BV of the Netherlands and Telia AB of Sweden. Eircom (U.K.) Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary based at Marsh Wall in London Docklands and it provides fixed line voice services to Eircom’s corporate customer base in Great Britain, In Northern Ireland, the company is investing £25m in the development of a new, state-of-the-art broadband fibre optic ring to link into the Republic’s network in the South. This expansion is managed by a further company Eircom NI. It has more than 3,500 business customers and now plans to extend its services to the NI residential market. Situation as at July/August 2000
[Material extracted from an article on the administration's' road vehicles by Christopher Hogan in Post Horn, the magazine of the Post Office Vehicle Club.]