Esat Telecommunications Limited, trading as Esat BT, is part of the BT Group, based in Ireland; the companies main business is in fixed line business in Ireland - services such as internet access, prepaid accounts and cards for voice. Esat Digifone, a GSM mobile phone network which was the first competitor to Eircell (then an Eircom susbidary) was originally a joint venture between Esat Telecom and Telenor, however when Esat was sold to BT, the mobile division became part of BT Wireless, which was evenutally spun off as mmO2.

The company was founded in the early 1990s by Denis O'Brien, and was originally known as Esat Telecom. It was the first domestic competitor to Eircom, and used "autodiallers" to route calls onto its network. Originally the company targeted just corporate customers, however later domestic customers were also targeted (initally as Esat Clear). The company was for a time listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, and New York Stock Exchange. Following the company's acquistion by BT Group plc, the company was rebranded as Esat BT, and replaced its own logo with the BT piper. (Ironically, BT itself dropped the piper logo shortly after, meaning that Esat BT once again uses a different logo to its parent).

The company's main network is built along the Iarnród Éireann rail network, completed in 1999, and while it does not currently install telephone lines its main competitor is Eircom. Esat BT owns the ISP Ireland On-Line. Esat BT has recently begun offering "single billing" accounts to residential customers, meaning they no longer need a fixed-line account with Eircom to access services. It has now been announced that from the start of Esat BT's next financial year (April 2005), the name of the company will change from "Esat BT" to just "BT", although it is expected that the name might cause a little controversy, because it will now be (in long form) "British Telecom", and companies containing the words "Britain" or "British" often receive some hostility because it can be interpreted as the company counting the UK and Republic of Ireland as one whole, which is severly disliked by the majority of people in the Republic of Ireland.

See also

• List of Irish companies
• Communications in Ireland
• Esat Young Scientist Exhibition

External link

• Official site (http://www.esatbt.ie)