Irish cutting back on the auld chat
Sunday February 07 2010
AS the recession deepens, Irish people are cutting back on their spending, including on that icon of the Celtic Tiger years, the mobile phone.
This week's third-quarter interim management statement from UK mobile phone giant Vodafone, which at one stage had over 400,000 Irish shareholders, revealed that average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) in this country fell almost 8 per cent to €37.40 in the last three months of 2009.
Vodafone's Irish ARPU peaked at over €49 in 2005. Since then it has fallen steadily due to increased competition and reduced consumer spending. These two trends are unlikely to ease up any time soon.
Having long been the most prolific mobile phone users in Europe, it seems the recession is teaching the Irish to cut back on the gab.
- DAN WHITE
Originally published in
