Charles Butterworth, CEO, Vodafone Ireland
3rd February 2010
Industry and Government must work together.
You have to ask what is going to drive economies out of the economic downturn and I believe that having really world-class infrastructure and connectivity is hugely important – broadband to people’s homes and offices. If that is available in a ubiquitous fashion then efficiency gains will be achieved for businesses and in terms of all the services that a government can provide its citizens.
People will find new ways of using technology and new ways of doing business.
Just look at phenomena such as social networking, they just weren’t in existence and now if you’re someone in your teens an 20s it’s a daily part of your life. We need to invest in the infrastructure to support this because it will be a hugely important platform to not only help develop the economy but also retain and attract talent for what is a smart economy.
Ireland has a good investment in mobile infrastructure and new successors like long-term evolution are on their way for consumers and businesses. That won’t be sufficient.
We also need to make sure that the fixed infrastructure is developed in parallel.
What we’ve seen in the last few years or what we’re talking about now with the industry is how do we make sure that next generation networks – fundamentally fibre – how do we make sure Ireland has a timely rolled-out next-generation network.
The answer is that industry and Government will have to work together to progress that, because if anything we as a country are behind in this.
Charles Butterworth's biography
Charles Butterworth is Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Ireland, having joined the company in July 2007 from Vodafone Group headquarters in the UK.
He joined Vodafone Group as the Director of Group Corporate Finance in May 2002, where he managed and co-ordinated merger and acquisition activity. In 2004, he was appointed as Group Investor Relations Director. In this role, he was responsible for orchestrating an active dialogue with investors and analysts, covering all aspects of Vodafone’s business including operational strategy and financial performance.
Before joining Vodafone Group, Butterworth spent nine years with UBS investment bank where he specialised in the telecoms sector, and in particular mobile. He is currently a board member of Vodafone Italy and Arcor in Germany.
Since becoming CEO, Butterworth has lead Vodafone Ireland’s move into the fixed-line space with the acquisition of Perlico and the launch of Vodafone at Home in 2007 and the acquisition of BT's retail, consumer and small business space in 2009.
Vodafone is Ireland's leading total communications provider, with 2.15 million mobile customers comprising business and personal. In addition, the company has 186,000 fixed-line customers, bringing Vodafone Ireland’s total telecoms base to 2.33 million as of 31 December, 2009.
