The Irish telecom market is one of the most open and competitive in the world. Targeted deregulation has set the industry free to create new services and set international trends, all great news for Research and Development Tax credits.

Recently however, it has been characterised by fierce competition in the mobile and broadband sectors, and by an innovative broadcast sector which has pioneered new models for distributing digital content.

The explosion of data has also presented significant technological challenges to both service providers and equipment manufacturers. They need to continuously evolve the operators’ networks through development and convergence of technology in order to handle continuously rising volumes of voice, video and data traffic on unified network infrastructures.

Industry Challenges

Faced with these challenges, which are largely consumer driven, telecom companies including mobile and landline operations, OEMs making the equipment for them as well as the manufacturers of the mobile handsets have all been increasing their R&D investment in Ireland and looking ahead to research and implement emerging trends.

Examples of Eligible R&D activities 

• Creating new technologies to optimise the network bandwidth;
• Developing next generation telecoms and IT network solutions to mobile and fixed line operators and providers of enterprise networks;
• Replacing legacy telephony services with newer technology approaches (e.g. VoIP);
• Developing equipment and software to provide customers with a seamless convergent telecommunications experience anytime, anywhere, through any terminal;
• Appreciably improving security infrastructure that supports broader network services access;
• Re-platforming or consolidating technology behind multiple business lines;
• Devising storage and retrieval techniques to solve prohibitive transactional volumes.

Expenditures can include wages, third party contractor cost (contractor performing R&D in EEA), materials, machinery, equipment, and overheads.

Interested in estimating your R&D credit/refund?
Check out Braithwaite’s R&D Calculator

Braithwaite Technology Consultants Ltd. can assist you in obtaining tax credits for research and development activities. Whether your work involves basic research, applied research, or experimental development, Braithwaite can take the uncertainty out of the filing process and get you the credit you deserve for your innovation.

For a detailed evaluation of the telecommunications industry, please contact the professionals at Braithwaite.