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Updated 11.28
AFTER 15 YEARS, Ireland’s largest telecoms company is being cut in half – linguistically, at least.
Eircom, which last changed its name from Telecom Éireann 15 years ago, will be rebranded as Eir with its logo reimagined as a squiggle.
In a statement today, the company said the launch “reflects the dynamism and confidence of our company” and the new brand was a “major milestone” for the company, “revitalising and modernising the look and feel of the group”.
It said the rebranding would cost €16 million, which includes changing the logos on uniforms, vehicles, stores, making it the largest such exercise in the past 20 years of Irish corporate history.
The company’s Meteor mobile-phone business will remain as a standalone brand.
Earlier this year a Reputations Agency survey ranked the company as Ireland’s fifth least-favourite brand, making it the lowest-rated internet or phone company.
Eir CEO Richard Moat said the new identity was “dynamic and modern” and reflected where the company was headed.
The marketplace has changed, technologies have changed, Eircom as a company has changed and we have to continue to evolve, to maintain our relevance and lead a very dynamic market,” he said.
The company also announced prices for its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband network, which can deliver claimed speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second – for a tidy sum.
It will charge €30 per month for the first four months on all broadband plans, but after that charges will rise to €67 per month for 150Mb peak speeds, €75 per month for 300Mb and €87 per month for 1,000Mb for new customers.
The full-speed service will only be available to 23,000 premises in 15 areas to begin with, including parts of Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny and other locations.
A turnaround
In recent years the company has been shedding income with the loss of fixed-line phone customers, making deep cuts to its staffing levels to make up for the reduced revenue.
However it recently reported its first year-on-year upturn in revenue for seven years as it continued to roll out its fibre network, the largest in Ireland.
The rebranding follows the announcement last month that UPC was changing its name to Virgin Media in Ireland.
First published 10.38
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Jesus, that is truly awful.
All is forgiven Google.
The squiggle just breaks off suddenly exactly like their broadband.
Looks like a pink EU to me.
Yeah at least google’s logo is readable even if it is childish
Did it cost as much as changing the shamrock design on Aer Lingus all those years ago. A national scandal.at the time, I’m sure some group of consultants have just bagged millions from it, and paid a bit back in brown envelopes.
I take it the €16 million rebranding includes the total amount required for the physical re-lettering of their whole fleet of vans, signs & new stationary etc, and is not just the fee of some graphic designer for a poxy new logo?
That would be reprehensible.
Looks like they didn’t even get to finish the logo, they’ll be needing more money now.
Dynamic and modern can ony be applied when broadband is rolled out across the whole country.
Dynamic when the price reflects the service. Logo looks like ’2 bent fingers back at you’ or ‘screw you’. change of name – same shit another day
Poxy New logo and system imposed on customers overnight caused chaos and confusion.Old webmail has disappeared.Could not get help from technical section,customer care or Eircom/eir.ie shop.The technical section was unreachable !
It didn’t become Irelands fifth least favourite brand because of the letters c o and m.
Jesus for a minute I thought a snail passed over my phone
I hate to see the losing design.
That’s great how much is that rebranding gonna cost me
Depends. How many shares do you own?
No surprise they are so disliked. Their customer service is shocking. I often went through 3 or 4 people to get a straightforward answer.
You actually got a straightforward answer!!
Bloody expensive for a child’s doodle.
Ah that does it – eir sounds great – I feel like I used to hate them for overcharging my granddad for services they confirmed with him he no longer needed and taking months and months to refund him….. but with a name like eir how could they have, i must have had it wrong
Being back telecom Éireann
Bring back P&T
Remember Eircell?… Telecom Éireann launched Eircell in 1984. The memories of having a Ready to go 088 number, this was my first phone! (http://www.ybig.ie/forum/uploads/3313/10479669593.jpg)
1984?
Was launched in 1983… operations commenced in 1986.
That motorola was my first phone too, got it in 98 or 99 after resisting being a phone w&nker for a couple of years before I caved in.
Totally worth it, I’m going straight back to them now.
100′s of millions in debt, 40% debt write off, credit extended multiple times, considering a third attempt at the stock market, debt transferred to holding company’s in Luxembourg and Jersey.
It wouldn’t surprise me Eircom will end up as close to an Irish version of Enron as we’ll ever see.
Just who the hell is lending them the €16mil for a painfully pathetic rebrand?
They’re just racking up the debt and will come looking for a bailout one day citing the number of employees and need for communications infrastructure.
Telecom Éireann.
Passed around to be used and abused in corporate takeovers by anyone who had even a bare relationship with FF for a decade till it was riddled and emaciated.
not surprised they are the worst regarded telecoms company. had my broadband order cancelled there by their credit Dept. never had dealings with eircom or meteor before but if I want to find out why I need to send a snail mail letter to Kerry, pleading for a reason. Will they need a letter from the local bishop next? Dynamic and modern my behind. Had sky installed instead no problem the next week.
Jaysus man, that is absolutely dreadful.
An easy few euros for the person(s) that squiggled it though!
16 million ahaha, I live 1.5km from a town with 100mbs, we have 3mbs. A company best avoided.
Eircoms lines was never brought to good standard out geographically in its bradband coverage, should be state owned!
Just to note our line can take fibre, eircom just decided they had no plans to plug our line into a fibre cabinet but we still got that will be the same price or F off attitude.
It looks like a guy drowning – kinda like this company is…….
Bit girly looking.
Looks kind of ‘fluid’
and steamy
Gender-fluid?
It should be brown
Eircom the biggest shower of corrupt bast**ds !!!!!!!
I think it is lovely and hopeful looking. Where the hell do all you moany holes come from or are ye all the same person?
This site would bring you down sometimes.
It sickens me to think how much they paid for that worm…
It should be replaced altogether and get someone to provide us with a decent broadband service
Did they drop the ‘com’ because their broadband service is inexcusably awful?
87 quid a month for gigabit. Sure, but be careful what you download or you’ll get a DMCA three-strikes letter before the first bill arrives. I’ll be sticking with UPC.
You mean they don like you stealing stuff over their network? That’s so unfair.
Putting lipstick on a pig….
meanwhile back in the market ,UPC. 240 speed broadband and phone 45e. per month is a lot cheaper so why change ? .
Eir today, gone tomorrow….
It’s a squiggle.
Amazing how many CEO’s think a change of squiggle changes the company.
Royal Mail spent many millions rebranding itself as “Consignia”.
Royal Mail sheepishly rebranded itself as Royal Mail when everybody in Britain laughed at them.
I see their marketing is as bad as their customer service then.
Be great in neon
it looks sh*t
Looks like a pantyliner ad.
The company is doomed, this is awful and whoever decided to go with this should be seriously evaluated. looks like a diet yogurt logo aimed at ladies. Eircom as a name works and changes to branding were needed but not this.
A truly dreadful company to deal with. We have been lobbying for years to have our business broadband upgraded by installing a highspeed (and now fibre) line from our local exchange, a mere 5 miles away. €17 million could have been better invested in rural infrastructure investment rather than this abhorrence of a rebrand.
Just checked on speedtest.net and our speed is – wait for it – 0.26mbs! (Yes, that is ZERO-POINT-TWO-SIX).
I’ll still call it Eir’con’…
Dreadful rebrand for a dreadful company. I sometimes miss seeing all the Irish branded companies in this country, like Telecom Éireann or Iarnród Éireann which prefers to call itself Irish Rail these days. How long before Bus Éireann is simply Irish Bus?
That is NOT just “a squiggle”.
Look at the cable connecting your landline’s handpiece to the main body of the telephone.
That “squiggle” is a representation of that curling, looping cable.
I like it, but am disappointed to see that the designer ripped off the old, classic, Plessey logo from the 60s/70s
(See – https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ae/1b/13/ae1b1348b34fd7c1aeb9e3b9832d242b.jpg)
The more expensive the logo the more probable that it was down to a creative search rather than a creative process.
Their name is slowly disappearing over time, just like their customers. It won’t be long until they’re gone, and good riddance.
They never bought http://www.eir.com ha
Let’s start a crowd fund to do it
How long will it be before the State bails them out (instead purchasing the network)
It’s in the national interest that the backbone be in state hands.
Still P&T to me
Time-lapse of the eir flagship store 16M rebrand…
IIS Ltd – http://www.fitout.ie are the main contractor!
https://youtu.be/HOuDFQN3qjU
a trendy worm. I’ve seen this so many times, little thought.
airnb:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/09/airbnbs-controversial-logo-looks-exactly-like-one.html
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/17/new-airbnb-logo-comparisons-automotive-anywhere-habitat-genitalia/
theres a google one as well going around and their new ‘hacked’ font. theyre all lifting, the argument is, its not about the logo, its the brand, no excuse for infringing trademarks, not the same thing. laziness.
Should have changed it to eircon
ebola
Won’t make them one iota more efficient
Have worked for Twelve hours today trying to access my Eircom Webmail to no avail.Intend cancelling my contract with Eir.ie(Phone & Broadband)
Eir! As in Eircode?
It’s like an 80s movie poster. Awful.
Their VAT number has recently changed. They’re now registered in Jersey.
Wonder what An Taisce have to say about their wildlife disturbance of Skellig Michael in the TV ad… Birds going nuts over a helicopter approach in the opening scene, nice…
I can see where they’re going with this. But they should have kept going. It looks like Arabic, especially since they also use it for the favicon (that’s the little icon in the browser’s address bar).
It looks like Luke Shaw’s leg
Yeap, Eircom or Eir squiggle as it is now is heading in the right direction alright according to Mr Moat. Straight into the pockets of the anonymous asset strippers, just like Clerys.
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