The parent company of Virgin Media is in advanced talks to buy Three Ireland, the Financial Times has reported. Both Three Ireland, owned by CK Hutchison, and Liberty Global, which owns Virgin Media, declined to comment on reports of the potential deal when contacted by the Irish Examiner. According to CK Hutchison, Three Ireland serviced a registered customer base of approximately 5.2m as of June 30, 2025. This was followed by Vodafone at 27%, Eir at 14.5%, Tesco Mobile at 4.6%, Lyca Mobile at 1.7%, Virgin Mobile at 1.3%, An Post Mobile at 0.6%, and Sky Mobile at 0.5%. It’s what’s called a virtual mobile network operator, meaning it piggybacks off another operator's network to provide services to customers.

Source: Irish Examiner January 20, 2026 13:02 UTC