Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
JUST A FEW hours before the UK announced its decision to allow Huawei restricted access in building its 5G network earlier this week, the chief executive of Eir said it is sticking with the Chinese company.
“We use Huawei for the radio part of our network and we use Ericsson for the core,” Carolan Lennon said, speaking at a Tuesday morning briefing on Eir’s investment programme.
Huawei, the large Chinese company that makes telecommunications equipment, has been embroiled in controversy ever since the US accused the company of links to the Chinese government.
It claimed that should Huawei be allowed to build architecture for 5G networks in other countries, it could leave those countries vulnerable to spying. Huawei has fiercely denied such charges but the episode has coloured much of the debate around trade and tech between the US, Europe and China.
Boris Johnson on Tuesday opted to allow the Chinese vendor a restricted role in working on the UK’s 5G infrastructure but only in ‘non-core’ elements, meaning it won’t have access to the more sensitive nooks and crannies of the networks.
This is an approach that Eir has followed too, using a mix of vendors Huawei and Sweden’s Ericsson – the latter accessing the core. This will remain the case, Lennon said.
“We’ve been very happy with (Huawei) as a supplier,” she said. “They have great kits, they have really top quality kit and we’re very happy with Ericsson doing the more sensitive core network.”
Eir has invested €150 million in its next-generation mobile network and has brought 20 cities and towns onto the network to date.
It remains early days though as 5G-enabled phones gradually enter the market and everyday use cases for the average consumer become a reality.
In the meantime, 4G will remain the best network that consumers can access and Eir continues to invest in improving the existing infrastructure around the country.
“I don’t think 5G will play all over Ireland. 5G will have a role but I don’t think it will be across the entire country,” Lennon said.
“We felt it was really important to get that bedrock of that 4G network right and improve our data and voice offering on 4G. At the same time, we want to compete with 5G. We want to be ready when people are ready for those services.”
Late last year, Eir launched a new mobile network brand called GoMo in a bid to take on the budget carrier market.
Armed with a sleek advertising campaign, the network promised voice, texts and data for €9.99 for the first 100,000 customers. Lennon said it created a “sense of urgency for people to get on board”.
However there are no plans to bring 5G coverage to the GoMo network, she added.
Fibre investment
Mobile is just one cog of Eir’s €1 billion investment programme. While much has been made of 5G in the headlines, Eir’s biggest investment has been in its gigabit fibre network.
It is pumping €500 million of that billion-euro programme into these efforts, currently reaching 50,000 premises. Ultimately the goal is to connect 1.4 million homes and businesses to this network.
Lennon said that investments in rural, suburban and urban fibre connections will play a complementary role of sorts to the National Broadband Plan.
“That will mean ubiquitous fibre coverage in Ireland, which again will put Ireland at the top of the world in terms of broadband and broadband underpinned by fibre.
“The National Broadband Plan runs in line. (By) the time we get to the end of that, Ireland will be extremely well positioned,” she said.
“The companies that win are the companies that have the best infrastructure. Our mission is to set the best fixed and mobile network in the country.”
Customer care
Lennon took the chief executive mantle nearly two years ago and assumed the reins on these investment plans for the next several years.
Also on her to-do list was mending the telco’s relationship with customers.
“It’s well documented that we’ve never excelled in Eir in customer care and I said I was going to make it a priority for myself and I wanted to turn care into an advantage or differentiator for Eir going forward,” she said.
Part of this strategy has involved bringing customer support in-house. It opened a new support centre in Sligo last year to accompany its other centres.
“Anyone you talk to when you ring up customer care, whether you get Limerick, Cork or Sligo, they all work directly for Eir. That’s part of our strategy to improve the offering we give to the customer.”
This shift has occurred under the auspices of Eir’s new owners, two firms controlled by French telecoms mogul Xavier Niel, which acquired a majority stake in Eir in late 2017.
Get our Daily Briefing with the morning’s most important headlines for innovative Irish businesses.
Written by Jonathan Keane and posted on Fora.ie
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The cause of the fire may never be known, but the padlocked fire escapes clearly played a part in this horrific event.
@Ruairi Gagarin: that’s the white wash. The enquiry was constrained by the terms…determine the cause of the fire, rather than determine the contributing gross negligence that caused needless injuries.
@Matt Connolly: And no dwelling on friendships between owners and politicians…
This is the fire where 48 young people died with emergency exits chained + padlocked shut – yet Stardust leaseholder + manager Eamon Butterly was able to sue Dublin Corporation, being awarded £581,000 (approx. €730,000 today). Truly only in this country. Almost goes without saying that he + his clan never accepted any responsibility nor have they ever apologised to the bereaved.
@Pat O’Leary: what did he sue them for Pat?
@Jane: look it up.
@Jane: He sued them for “malicious damage” to his property once it was legally stated that the cause was “probable arson”. The bit that makes no sense to me ( unless I’ve read it wrong) is that it appears he sued them for failing to uphold by-laws – relating to fire safety(?) – which he himself appears to have flouted by chaining doors shut to stop people getting in free. If I’ve got it wrong, I’m happy to be corrected. Either way, the case was settled for just over £500,000 outside the court.
I remember it well, I was a young kid and it seemed like the whole world was falling down. I watched the docudrama made about it again recently, it was awful, can’t imagine the end for the victims and the horror the families have been through, very sad even after 36 years.
“Cause of fire nay never be known!”
The cause of the fire will definitely never be known if they keep looking the other direction!
@Jarlath Murphy:
Gardaí couldn’t find any evidence that would point to the cause. Any hint of what caused the fire was incinerated by the fire itself.
Perhaps, it was a jam factory, perhaps it had an extraction system in the angled roof to remove odours, perhaps this was used to extract smoke and heat a disco, perhaps a false ceiling was fitted to cover this and other signs of its previous use, perhaps flames entered this extraction system and burned until it melted dropped onto the false ceiling causing it to ignite and fall throughout a disco at the same time, perhaps thats one of the reasons so many beautiful young lives were lost n destroyed. Perhaps
@Martin Murphy: perhaps thats a very well informed amd accurate opinion.
@Martin Murphy: very true Martin, my late mum worked there when it was a Jam factory before she moved Southside, little did she know then that her Daughter would perish there
@Jane – original tribunal made a finding of arson as cause of the fire. Not a legal expert but would guess Butterly was then technically an injured party in relation to a criminal act, proceeded to exploit the wonders of our legal system for his payout. Obscene doesn’t begin to describe it. Also goes without saying that he was never prosecuted himself for safety breaches i.e. emergency doors chained shut.
What do people mean by ‘closure’? Is it ever possible after ANY traumatic event?
The highly respected Judge McCarran could not be clearer in his language. The protesters of course have rejected the report. Ireland has more than it’s share of nuts. They must be told in unmistakable language – NO FURTHER ENQUIRY.
@Donal Hanley: you’re obviously just trolling or ,more likely, you’re the “nut”!!!!!!
Many many people said similar heinous remarks about the families and friends of the innocent 96 soccer fans that perished in Hillsborough too
Could someone sum up what exactly those seeking another enquiry are hoping to establish?
Is it padlocked fire escapes or cause of fire?
It’s not that clear to many people what genuine injustice might be still left unaddressed.
What more can they do? The building is not there anymore. Maybe if it were still there this would have been sorted out year’s ago… How many more report’s do they want to do? You can’t just magic up the building from 36 years ago. Feel sorry for the family and friends of the people that died and were hurt.
@casey: the building, parts of it anyway are still there. Its been revmped so many times at this stage its unrecognisable. I suppose what the famlies want is an impartial report to include the over 30 witnesses that were dismissed in the origional & subsequent reports. Anything too damning to Saint Butterly was excluded. Interesting to remember the family were close to the Haughey’s at the time, Charlie even paid them a visit in the days that followed.
@dB O’Neill: Ah ok I didn’t know bits of it were still there. I was up there in the market that was in place of where the disco was a few years back.
@dB O’Neill: well said, a day after McCartens assessment, the builders a renovating The Lantern Rooms AKA The Silver Swan AKA The Artane House
Betrayal most vile
@Pat Butler
Explain please betrayal by whom? The highly respected Judge? Yes the cause was never established and whoever was responsible for the exits being padlock was never named. But the building no longer exists. Another enquiry can achieve nothing as Judge McCartan says
@Donal Hanley: so why call the victims families nuts? Please explain in detail..
@Donal Hanley: The exits were padlocked, what’s wrong with you?
The first Report by Judge Costello was less than forensically rigorous. It evaded the responsibility.
Locking in the victims did not help.
Of an age that I can remember that tragic event .Can well understand the anger and frustration of families who lost loved ones. Not from Dublin, but building I believe is gone , but it does not take away from the fact that doors were padlocked , materials were major cause. No person was ever held accountable for this tragedy. The families do not want a witch hunt, but justice. In lRELAND they are fighting a lost cause in getting the answers they seek. Well done to the families that have fought and I hope will carry on to recive the justice they deserve.
48 young people die…….,nobody held responsible………..welcome to Ireland.
I voted for Pat McCartan back in his Workers Party days and I now want to disown that vote, just as I’ve disowned the ones I misguidedly gave his fellow-traitor Pat Rabbitte; On his ‘review’ of the Stardust Relatives submission for a new inquiry I don’t care how ‘disorganised’ he found the material the fact is corporate manslaughter was committed against innocents (and don’t tell me fire exits weren’t padlocked, I stopped going to The Stardust beforehand precisely because of such standard practise) including some I grew up with and forests of paper, decades of time and piles of (taxpayers’) money have been wasted trying to bury the truth, so I won’t be distracted by this latest shovelful of sh*t. McCartan didn’t even properly read the evidence about the number of drums of cooking oil stored in the roofspace. I’m delighted the relatives will publish their submission so we can all compare it to the previous ‘reports’ cited by McCartan when earning his twenty pieces of silver!
@Michael Bride: you are talking utter nonsense
It was every bit as bad as Grenfell Tower, what a sick disgusting corrupt little country this is.
https://youtu.be/gyw2xHT_-FE
Injustice
have your say