What sport there was for the Margin at the ESB/ BT announcement of a new phone service in the Republic, especially on the crucial issue known as the "universal service obligation". Under EU law, one phone company in each jurisdiction must provide a service to every household, no matter how remote or commercially unviable.

Naturally, BT in Britain has long argued that it should be compensated fully for having to provide this service, whilst the company's competitors insist that the universal nature of such a service actually gives the provider a huge marketing boon, and that therefore no compensation is necessary.

In these final days before competition, the telecommunications regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, has yet to decide on the compensation for Telecom Eireann's uneconomic customers. But what would BT's position be?

"I feel like a gamekeeper turned poacher," explained BT's Mr George McGrath, the chief executive of the new company. He and the head of BT Ireland, Ms Lucy Woods, insisted that despite everything BT has said in the past, the provision of universal service is actually "a massive advantage" to the incumbent.