Three Ireland is the country’s second largest mobile operator, with almost a 28pc share of the mobile voice market, according to the latest data from telecoms watchdog Comreg. Vodafone is the biggest, with 32.5pc, while Eir is third, with 24.4pc.
Virgin Media already operates as a so-called virtual network operator in Ireland, offering mobile services to its own customers via Three’s network. However, Virgin Media has just a tiny customer base in Ireland, with a 2.4pc share of the voice mobile market.
Buying Three Ireland would significantly scale up its customer base, giving it the opportunity to directly market its TV and broadband services to existing Three Ireland customers.
We have no comment to make on market speculation
Talks to acquire Three Ireland are reportedly at an advanced stage. The proposed acquisition was first reported by the Financial Times.
Three Ireland declined to comment.
“We have no comment to make on market speculation,” a spokesman for Liberty Global said.
Three Ireland is owned by CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate.
It has been selling mobile assets in Europe amid dwindling returns.
Last year, the chief executive of Liberty Global, Mark Fries, told a conference in the US that the company was interested in buying a mobile asset in Ireland in the future.
The latest data from Comreg shows that the total number of mobile voice subscriptions in Ireland at the end of the third quarter of 2025 was just over six million.
When mobile broadband and machine-to-machine subscriptions are included, the total mobile subscriptions was 10.7m. Machine-to-machine subscriptions include the likes of sensors attached to monitoring equipment that communicates over the mobile network.
In 2020, Liberty Global merged its Virgin Media business in the UK with Telefonica’s O2 arm there, in a 50-50 venture. At the time, Liberty Global said it would create a “stronger fixed and mobile competitor” in the market.
In 2021, there was speculation that Liberty Global – whose biggest shareholder is billionaire John Malone – was looking to sell Virgin Media Ireland for about €1.5bn.
Mr Malone has extensive property interests in Ireland.
CK Hutchison Holdings is currently eyeing a potential joint stock market listing of its international telecoms business, in London and Hong Kong.
Liberty Global acquired Virgin Media in 2013 in a $24bn (€20.4bn) deal. At the time, that gave it a customer base of 25 million across 12 European countries.
Telecoms firm UPC Ireland became part of Virgin Media in the UK in 2014. UPC was rebranded as Virgin Media in 2015.
Virgin Media’s residential, business and mobile units in Ireland generated revenue of €366.6m in 2024 and had just over 462,000 customers at the end of that year.
The accounts for that year show it incurred €93m in capital expenditure during 2024 and made a loss of €17.6m. It made a €29m loss the year before. It posted operating profits of €42.8m for 2024 and €56.1m for 2023.
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