The joy of text boosts O2's Irish revenue

MmO2 Ireland announced this morning that it has added 43,000 new customers in its third quarter to the end of December.

MmO2 Ireland announced this morning that it has added 43,000 new customers in its third quarter to the end of December.

That brings its total subscriber base in the Republic to 1.24 million, up 5 per cent on the same period last year.

The company also reported it had 19.1 million customers in the four countries it covers. Across Europe, customer numbers rose by 791,000, a 4.3 per cent increase, during its third quarter.

In Britain, the customer base rose to 11.9 million with 503,000 new users. The company says its British customers sent half a billion text messages during December.

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O2's Irish customers were even more text happy, with 259 million messages being sent via the Irish network in the quarter, an increase of 17 per cent on the last quarter.

The company also reports an "encouraging" start for its portfolio of interactive products, adding more than 100,000 active customers for its Java games and multimedia messaging services.

Usage in this area is expected to increase this year because of connections with other network operators and a greater choice of colour screen handsets.

Conor Pope

Conor Pope

Conor Pope is Consumer Affairs Correspondent, Pricewatch Editor