'The company will start to communicate the change to customers from tomorrow.' Pic: Maxwells

Telecommunications company Eir is to 'retire' its Meteor mobile phone brand this September. The Meteor brand has been in existence since 2001 and has over 750,000 customers.

The mobile phone network will be re-branded 'Eir', joining an existing mobile phone service provided by the company under the Eir name. Between them, Meteor and Eir have 1.1 million mobile customers.

A group statement said that Meteor customers will benefit from the rebrand - and that the transition in September will be seamless.

"Meteor customers will continue using their mobiles exactly as before - with the added benefit of a world of possibilities," eir CEO Richard Moat said.

"By focusing on a single mobile brand and reducing the duplication of supporting two brands, we can offer better value and increased innovation."

Meteor customers have been advised that there will be no change to contracts and plans in the rebrand. Customer care lines will also remain the same.

Significant investment has been made in marketing and advertising Meteor since it was acquired by Eir, formerly Eircom, in 2005. It has sponsored a number of events, including the Meteor Choice Awards.

The company is currently spending between €3m and €4m on its 'Let's make possible' campaign and believes that the mobile phone business would be better served by benefiting from the lift provided by this campaign than separate marketing investment in Meteor.

The company will start to communicate the change to customers from tomorrow. The group has 84 retail outlets which is comprised of Eir stores, Meteor stores and dual branded stores and all will become Eir stores in the coming weeks and months.

Paul Bradley, a spokesman for Eir, said: "We have adopted a single brand strategy. You can get your bundle from Eir, your broadband from Eir, your TV from Eir and mobile from Eir."

Meteor had traditionally been seen as a younger brand, while Eir's mobile phone service was seen as targeting older customers of the group, many of whom had a landline with the company.

"What it reflects is our growing confidence in the Eir brand. We are almost two years in from when the company launched the brand," he added.

"There has been work to evolve the Meteor brand over the last couple of years because initially it was a youth brand and a pre-pay focused brand. But now it is a much healthier mix of prepay and bill pay."

Sunday Indo Business