Vodafone Ireland to outsource 200 jobs to IBM


6 Jun 2007

Ireland’s incumbent mobile operator Vodafone will be outsourcing 200 jobs to IBM in a move to reduce overheads.

Although 130 of these jobs are in contract positions, 60 are Vodafone staff. Vodafone has not yet announced when this phasing-out will take place.

This announcement from Vodafone follows from O2’s decision last week to outsource 450 of its jobs to several contenders including IBM.

Although Vodafone Ireland’s preliminary results announcement for the year ending March 31st 2007 revealed strong figures, with customer numbers increasing by 102,000 to 2,177,000, the mobile operators decision may be based on seeking on younger markets.

Mobile saturation levels in Ireland have passed the 100pc mark, whereas growing markets in Eastern Europe have recently attracted Vodafone Group Plc’s attention. The company bought Romanian and Czech mobile assets in 2005 for US$3.5bn.

Earlier this month, Vodafone also announced its plans to begin selling low cost mobile phones in the Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, to encourage growth in the mobile phone markets there.

By Marie Boran