Meteor Mobile says MVNOs will undermine competition

Ireland’s smallest GSM operator Meteor Mobile says that the regulator’s determination to establish MVNOs in the country will undermine competition rather than enhance it. ComReg has said its larger rivals Vodafone and O2 are too dominant – they control over 90% of the market – and has moved to force them to open up their networks. However, Meteor’s director of corporate affairs Andrew Kelly says that the regulator’s ruling on market dominance ignores the fact that the EU believes that Meteor is providing real competition and that ComReg’s ruling might not hold up to scrutiny in the future. Kelly points out that three quarters of all Irish cellular users take pre-paid options and that his company specialises in making gains in this area. He argues that MVNOs entering the market – such as Tesco or Tele2 – would have a detrimental impact on Meteor’s subscriber base, rather than achieve the desired effect of diminishing the dominance of Vodafone and O2.