The European Commission has said action should be taken to open up the Irish mobile phone market to increase competition and bring prices down for consumers.
The Commission said today that the two big operators in the Irish market, O2 and Vodafone, have a dominant share of the market.
Between them they control 90% of the market. In terms of revenue they even account for up to 97%, according to the Commission.
The EC said the two companies had possibly engaged in 'tacit collusion' to avoid competition. The authorities in Brussels also said that Irish consumers were paying among the highest mobile phone tariffs in Europe.
Today, the EC said it was endorsing the conclusions of the Irish telecoms regulator, ComReg, that something should be done. ComReg now has the go ahead to persuade the two players to make the network available to other competitors. This should be done through commercial negotiations under strict EU competition rules.
If, within a year or so, no new players have been brought into the market, then ComReg can impose rules to break up the dominant position. This would probably then be endorsed by Brussels, which has a supervisory role in mobile phone competition.
The third operator in Ireland, Meteor, has made some gains, but mostly in the pre-paid market. In the more profitable post-paid market, they have barely been able to make any impact.
The European Commission said a more open market could attract virtual mobile operators like Virgin or Tele2, which could get access to the networks and help to bring prices down.
In a statement, O2 Ireland said it did not agree with the decision by ComReg that there was a lack of effective competition. The company said it intended to appeal.
