Welcome to the September 2013 Newsletter from
our Telecommunications Group.
It has been an eventful quarter for the Irish telecoms industry,
with Three's June announcement that it had agreed to acquire O2
Ireland. Vodafone also won a significant High Court victory in
appealing certain parts of ComReg's MTR decision, with the
regulator's use of benchmarking ruled 'ultra vires'.
New criminal laws allow the government to 'shut down'
mobile communications to combat terrorism, while there was
disappointment for ComReg on its M2M consultation.
It has also been a busy time at the European level. A
number of telecom operators have announced merger plans across
Europe, and within the last few weeks the European Commission
announced its plans for a single telecom market – described
by it as "the most ambitious plan in 26 years of telecoms
reform" - to promote broadband investment, end mobile
phone roaming fees and make international fixed-line calls the same
price as
