A little over eight weeks after launching the Unison web portal and Internet TV platform, the managing director of Internet Ireland, Mr Michael Branagan, is brimming with confidence. In an interview this week he predicted that Unison would outstrip its competitors to become "the definitive Internet brand and ISP (Internet service provider) in Ireland" by the end of this year.
"When we switched Unison on we created the biggest single database about Ireland anywhere in the world," he said.
He claimed that the figures for the use of Unison's set-top boxes, which allow users to access the Internet using their televisions, are greater than expected. But he would not say exactly how many devices were currently in use.
He is certain, however, that Unison is already a leader in its field, saying that the existing ISPs are not Unison's main competitors: "Because of the various regional newspapers that we represent in Unison we are head and shoulders above our competitors in content offering and that is going to appeal, and is appealing, to the wide diaspora in terms of them looking for news from the four corners of Ireland.
"I would see Yahoo! as being our main competitor. If you look at what Yahoo! are trying to do in the Irish arena, they are trying to set up a county-by-county framework. This is exactly what the newspapers are and have been for 200 years," he said.
Mr Branagan (36), a chartered accountant by profession, originally headed up ISP, Indigo, which later became Internet Ireland. Internet Ireland, which launched Unison last February, is 75 per cent owned by Independent News & Media and Princes Holdings.
Mr Branagan said that Unison had already forged partnerships with a number of organisations such as VHI, Renault and GE Capital, and he added that it would shortly announce a partnership with a major bank which will provide Irish Internet users with a "one-stop-shop" for secure e-commerce activity.
A major initiative in broadband access is also in the offing in partnership with one of Unison's parents, Princes Holdings.
"In June, when Irish Multichannel roles out its digital offering we will be an integral part of that offering - Unison being the Internet channel on that offering," Mr Branagan said.
He denied recent reports that set-top boxes supplied to schools around the country were configured differently to guide students into Unison services before accessing other areas of the Internet.
"It was totally incorrect and grossly misleading. Set-top boxes for schools were not specially configured to dial in directly to Unison. The set-top boxes in schools are exactly the same as the set-top boxes that anybody else uses. They all dial into Unison.
"You don't buy an Esat phone and come home surprised that you can't dial into the Eircell network," Mr Branagan claimed.