Vodafone investment doubts after ComReg email fiasco

Vodafone has said its plans to invest in Ireland may be threatened after the communications regulator (ComReg) sent it letters relating to O2’s bid for a mobile phone licence and also sent Vodafone’s correspondence to O2.

Subsequently, an employee at ComReg mistakenly emailed Vodafone Ireland’s strategy director, Paul Ryan, information on how to submit cricket scores as the regulator was attempting to play down the impact of the initial data breach.

The combination of the two breaches resulted in Vodafone sending letters to ComReg claiming that the issues and delays around the mobile phone licence auction could affect Vodafone’s plans to invest in Ireland.

On Apr 23, Mr Ryan wrote to ComReg after it had emerged the regulator had sent correspondence intended for O2 to Vodafone.

“Late last week ComReg disclosed correspondence intended for Vodafone Ireland Limited with Telefonica O2 Ireland Limited and disclosed correspondence to Vodafone intended for O2,” Mr Ryan said in a letter.

ComReg responded by apologising for the mistake and playing down the importance of the error.

In a letter to Vodafone on Apr 26, ComReg chairman Alex Chisholm said: “I am of course sorry this occurred. At the same time, I am glad that no harm was done, on the basis that Comreg’s letters related to non-confidential aspects of each party’s correspondence under reply, and were intended for publication.”

Then on May 8 a ComReg employee, Samuel Ritchie, sent an email to Mr Ryan that included a password and Mr Ritchie’s ComReg email address for the purpose of submitting cricket scorecards.

The email resulted in Vodafone looking for a formal review of ComReg’s data protection measures in advance of any auction for the mobile phone spectrum.

“The manifest inadequacies in ComReg’s systems for custodianship and security of information, together with its apparent reluctance to engage with stakeholders on how those standards could be raised to a level of best industry practice, is a cause of grave concern to Vodafone in circumstances where ComReg is proposing to undertake what is likely to be the most complex, highest-value spectrum allocation process in the history of the State,” McCann Fitzgerald solicitors, for Vodafone, said in a letter.

A week later McCann Fitzgerald again wrote to ComReg saying: “If uncertainty continues, Vodafone may be forced to postpone or cancel planned investments in Ireland. In large part, the uncertainty is the result of the delay which has been a feature of the proposed auction process since it began four years ago.”