Vodafone Ireland will be competing with Eircom for fixed-line customers as it today acquired fixed-line broadband and voice provider, Perlico. It is understood Vodafone paid €80 million for the Irish fixed line player.
Financial details of the deal will be announced later today by both Charles Butterworth, CEO of Vodafone Ireland, and Iain MacDonald, CEO of Perlico.
Vodafone will be adding over 62,000 fixed-line customers to its customer base that already includes 2.2 million mobile subscribers.
Some 25,000 of these customers are subscribed to broadband, which will now place Vodafone squarely in the fixed-line broadband market as well as 3G broadband.
Although owned entirely by Vodafone, Perlico will be a subsidiary of Vodafone and as such will keep the Perlico brand and still offer the same services, aimed at providing competitive broadband and voice prices.
The only difference is that Perlico, which currently has 67 employees, will now also sell Vodafone 3G broadband, along with Vodafone pre-paid and post-paid packages, through its existing sales channels.
Charles Butterworth, CEO of Vodafone Ireland, said: “Vodafone has established itself as the leading provider of mobile broadband solutions in Ireland.
“As we were the first mobile operator in Ireland to move into mobile broadband, Vodafone will also be the first mobile company to bring a total communications offer to its customers.”
By Marie Boran
