Updated 11.28
AFTER 15 YEARS, Ireland’s largest telecoms company is being cut in half – linguistically, at least.
Eircom, which last changed its name from Telecom Éireann 15 years ago, will be rebranded as Eir with its logo reimagined as a squiggle.
In a statement today, the company said the launch “reflects the dynamism and confidence of our company” and the new brand was a “major milestone” for the company, “revitalising and modernising the look and feel of the group”.
It said the rebranding would cost €16 million, which includes changing the logos on uniforms, vehicles, stores, making it the largest such exercise in the past 20 years of Irish corporate history.
The company’s Meteor mobile-phone business will remain as a standalone brand.
Earlier this year a Reputations Agency survey ranked the company as Ireland’s fifth least-favourite brand, making it the lowest-rated internet or phone company.
Eir CEO Richard Moat said the new identity was “dynamic and modern” and reflected where the company was headed.
The marketplace has changed, technologies have changed, Eircom as a company has changed and we have to continue to evolve, to maintain our relevance and lead a very dynamic market,” he said.
The company also announced prices for its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband network, which can deliver claimed speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second – for a tidy sum.
It will charge €30 per month for the first four months on all broadband plans, but after that charges will rise to €67 per month for 150Mb peak speeds, €75 per month for 300Mb and €87 per month for 1,000Mb for new customers.
The full-speed service will only be available to 23,000 premises in 15 areas to begin with, including parts of Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny and other locations.
A turnaround
In recent years the company has been shedding income with the loss of fixed-line phone customers, making deep cuts to its staffing levels to make up for the reduced revenue.
However it recently reported its first year-on-year upturn in revenue for seven years as it continued to roll out its fibre network, the largest in Ireland.
The rebranding follows the announcement last month that UPC was changing its name to Virgin Media in Ireland.
First published 10.38
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