More Talk, More Texts

O2 Ireland Releases Full Year Performance Figures

[O2 Press Release] - 18th May 2004

O2 Ireland today announced that 339 million text messages were sent by O2 text enthusiasts in the first three months of this year, totalling over a billion texts sent by O2 customers in the past year alone. The first text message was sent in Ireland twelve years ago but the texting phenomenon only took off in Ireland four years ago.

O2 Ireland also announced that it had gained 21,000 new customers in the first three months of this year, bringing O2's total customer base to 1.39 million, over 70% of them Speak easy (top-up) customers. O2 released minutes of usage figures that clearly show that we love to talk. Customers are spending on average 197 minutes per month on their mobile phone, up 5% from the same period last year and well ahead of the UK figure of 123 for minutes spent on the phone per month.

'It is fantastic to have gained 21,000 new customers in the three month period January to end March 2004 and an increase of 11% in our customer numbers since this time last year,' commented Danuta Gray, Chief Executive, O2 Ireland. 'This was achieved for a variety of reasons most notably because of our new Speak easy tariffs, offering customers text messages for just 7.5 cent and a 16% reduction in call charges since we introduced the new Speak easy tariffs last November.'

The Irish mobile penetration rate now stands at 87%, an increase of 4% since the last quarter and an increase of 8% on the last 12 months. There are now well over three million people in this country using mobile phones.

The full set of Preliminary results and Key Performance Indicators for the quarter 1 January to 31 March 2004 have been released by mmO2 and can be viewed on www.mmo2.com