ESB is the name for the
electricity supply board in
Ireland.
It was established in 1927 and has served Ireland as the
monopoly electricity supplier to
Ireland ever since.
The
ESB is investing about £40 million (euro 50.8 million) in a
fibre-optic cable in advance of its bid for a
third generation (
3G) mobile licence.
The State company said it hoped to bid for a licence in partnership with an international
mobile phone company.
The general manager of
ESB Telecoms, Mr
John McSweeney, said it had identified "two or three" potential partners, but declined to reveal who they were. However, no partnership would be formed until final details on the competition were released by the
telecoms regulator, Ms Etain Doyle.
The managing director of the
ESB's engineering and commercial business division, Mr
Seán Wyse, said it had "fairly detailed discussions" with potential partners.
The ESB was confident it could use the "
backbone"
fibre system and retail outlets throughout the State to roll out a mobile service quickly, as required by Ms Doyle.
However, Mr Wyse said it would require "a lot of support" from a partner. If no partner was secured, he said the
ESB would proceed with the construction of the fibre network anyway.
If the
ESB secured a
3G licence, it anticipated revenues worth "hundreds of millions".
The
fibre network, which will wrap around wires on the
existing electricity system, could be used by other
3G licence holders in that scenario. The system used to develop a fibre of "
48 core" strength
anchored on the power network was developed by a British group,
ALF Focas.
Mr McSweeney would not comment when asked whether the
ESB had held discussions with the US group
Motorola. In the mid-1990s, it bid unsuccessfully with
Motorola for the second mobile phone licence won by
Esat Digifone. That partnership was known as
Unisource.
Some info gleaned from the Irish Times