UPC Ireland has confirmed that it will formally switch to the Virgin Media brand utilised by its UK sister company, as ‘a platform for further growth and continued delivery of great customer experiences’. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, commented: ‘We are delighted to bring the Virgin Media brand to Ireland. We are proud of the way it has revolutionised the UK market, improving customer service, increasing speeds and bringing more choice to our customers. Building on the strong platform in Ireland, I know we will do great things together with Liberty Global and shake up the Irish market even further.’
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, UPC is owned by Liberty Global, which acquired Virgin Media UK in 2013. On 1 December 2014 Liberty Global implemented ‘organisational changes’ in the UK and Ireland, which saw the Irish management team start reporting directly to their UK counterparts. It has previously been reported that the launch of a Virgin Mobile-branded MVNO is one of the company’s top priorities.