Eircom, the former state-owned Irish telephone company, will scale back its UK subsidiary, reducing its workforce from around 100 to 20 people
Eircom UK will now focus on corporate customer services such as automated teller machines, frame relay, and leased-line and fixed-line voice services. It will also manage eircom’s international traffic flows.
The restructuring is part of an overall strategic review to streamline the company’s operations and to concentrate on the Irish market. The group will scale back development of the network infrastructure it was building, and halt its switching capability in London and Manchester.
Eircom also entered into talks last month to sell off its non-mobile assets – fixed-line, multimedia and directory services – which were recently valued at #1.5bn following a bid from Irish entrepreneur Denis O’Brien.