Pure Telecom on acquisition trail after record year

Pure Telecom is looking to more than double its customer base over the next three years through a series of acquisitions and competitive wins.

The move comes as the Irish telecoms and broadband provider confirmed it added 10,000 additional customers last year to take subscriber numbers to a record 42,500.

Pure, which employs more than 100 people nationwide, said it is now aiming to increase its customer base to 100,000 by year-end 2019. including “the selective acquisition of smaller broadband and telecommunications companies, which would allow us the scale to continue to offer the most competitive packages on the market”.

Co-founder and director Paul Connell said the company expected to see more consolidation in the sector as the rollout of the National Broadband Plan gets underway and margins continue to tighten.

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“The larger players will look to sweep up smaller broadband and telecoms companies in order to capitalise on increased demand as more premises become connected to fibre. It is going to be all about national scale and reach,” Mr Connell said.

Perhaps surprisingly, the company claims the landline is back in fashion.

“In recent months, 25 per cent of our sales have been new line installations. What we’re seeing is that people are getting landlines to enable high-speed broadband. And, smartphones are actually contributing to this.

“When people get home, they don’t want to be using their 3G or 4G to surf the internet: they want a WiFi connection from a high quality fixed-line link. We expect this trend to continue into 2017, with the landline making its comeback,” Mr Connell said.

He also forecast that the “cord cutting” trend, which has seen consumers ditching their cable TV and paid TV subscriptions in favour of streaming media services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, will increase, with an adverse impact ofTV licence income for the State.

A survey of more than 1,000 people conducted on behalf of the company last June found a quarter of Irish households have abandoned paid TV services such as satellite or cable over the past five years in favour of viewing content online.

That study also showed a third of those surveyed would consider ditching television services altogether due to the availability of content online and the opportunity to avoid paying their television licence.