Ireland is characterised by high levels of smartphone and 4G penetration and rapidly rising consumption of mobile data, which has risen almost seven-fold since 2013 and is forecast to grow at an average of 32% per year up to 2022.

While similar trends can be observed in other European countries, Ireland’s distinctive characteristics (including its population distribution) present significant challenges to meeting future mobile connectivity needs.

ComReg commissioned Oxera and Real Wireless to conduct a study on the future of mobile connectivity in Ireland. Our report provides insight and advice on three key areas:

• the new or enhanced mobile services that are likely to emerge in Ireland over the foreseeable future;
• the likely costs associated with different deployment scenarios for future mobile connectivity services in Ireland;
• the approaches that could be employed to incentivise the necessary investment for those deployment scenarios.

Our study will inform, among other things, ComReg’s award proposals for the future release of spectrum, which could include the release of spectrum from one or more of the 700MHz, 1.4GHz, 2.1GHz, 2.3GHz, and 2.6GHz bands.