BT Ireland
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Parent | BT Group |
| Website |
BT Ireland BT(NI) |
BT Communications (Ireland) Limited is a telecommunications and internet company in Ireland. It is a subsidiary of BT Group plc.
The company was founded in 1990 by a constortium headed by business magnate Denis O'Brien and was originally known as Esat Telecom. The name Esat, said to be an abbreviation of "Éireann Satellite" and connected to O'Brien's bid for Ireland's communications satellite licence under the 1977 ITU frequency plans, would become much more associated with telcommunications in Ireland, however.
Esat Telecom applied a number of times for a telecommunications licence to the Department of Communications and was finally granted a limited one in March 1993. The company officially launched its services on 20 April 1994. It was the first domestic competitor to Bord Telecom Éireann (now Eircom) and, after initially reselling leased lines from that company, used "autodiallers" to route calls onto its network.
These devices proved controversial, with Telecom threatening legal action and the Department contending that these were a breach of Esat's limited licence. However, an Esat complaint to the European Commission was upheld, and eventually in 1997, the new Director of Telecommunications Regulation (now called ComReg) regularised Esat's position by ordering Telecom Éireann to provide a service to switch calls onto Esat's network.
In 1996, Esat Telecom, in conjunction with Telenor AB, bid successfully for the second GSM mobile telecommunications licence, against five other consortia. This became known as Esat Digifone. The Moriarty Tribunal found in 2008 that the awarding of the licence was influenced by payments made by O'Brien to Michael Lowry, the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications. On 7 November 1997, Esat Telecom Group plc held an initial public offering and was listed on the , , and NASDAQ Stock Market.
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