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By Sally Watson, 1 December 1998 00:20

NEWS The Irish telecommunications market opens up today as full deregulation finally comes into effect. The Irish government began the liberalisation process six months ago and director of Telecoms Regulation, Etain Doyle, yesterday praised the hard work of his staff and the cooperation of the industry for helping to reach the ambitious target. Doyle issued 29 telecoms licenses yesterday at a ceremony in Dublin. Two types of license were issued - 21 general permits to provide telecoms networks and services, and 8 basic licenses which do not cover voice services. The competitors in the general market include existing state-run Telecom Eireann, Cable & Wireless, WorldCom and Ocean Communications - a joint venture between BT and Ireland's power utility ESB. Parantha Narendran, consultant at Ovum, warned that the launch might not be smooth. "Lots of things will need to be ironed out," he said. "Six months down the line there could still be major uncertainties." Narendran added that not all rates and interconnection charges have been fixed yet. "These need to be resolved early on or they could cause uncertainty in the market, as they did in Germany where investment has been limited," he said. A report from the Advisory Committee on Telecommunications released last week stressed the importance of an Irish information infrastructure to enable to country to compete on a global scale. The committee said that although telecoms and Internet access prices had fallen in Ireland in the past few years, that needed to be pushed lower to compete with the low rates that fuel US business. The report concluded: "The lack of broadband international services and of competitively priced local broadband access is today a serious burden on Irish business and a brake on employment growth." Deregulation is seen as an important step towards correcting that imbalance. Narendran pointed out that Ireland had a better chance of a successful ecommerce economy than many European countries. "There are a lot of high-tech companies and tele-centres to support the growth of ecommerce [in Ireland]. They've got all the right skills and industrial sectors." The competition will begin today with smaller Irish companies battling against international telecoms giants for market share. The regulator has added conditions into the licenses to ensure quality of service and codes of practise. Telecom Eireann faces perhaps the biggest challenge. Narendran commented: "Telecom Eireann is going to have to shake up. The opportunities for incumbent telcos are usually good after restructuring, but in the short to medium-term it can be difficult."