ComReg chairwoman to leave post next month

The chairwoman of the State's communications watchdog is set to leave the agency next month.

Isolde Goggin will depart ComReg shortly after her second one-year term as chairwoman ends on Friday.

Fellow commissioner Mike Byrne is due to succeed her to the chair this week. The position is rotated among the three commissioners who head ComReg.

Ms Goggin, who served two consecutive terms as chairwoman, was appointed to ComReg four years ago next month. This means her term with the commission will be up.

While she has the option of renewing her contract with the body, she has decided against this.

The Government also appointed her colleague John Doherty four years ago, but it is believed that he will continue as a commissioner.

According to industry sources, Ms Goggin has told associates she wants to "leave the regulatory environment".

She served with the Competition Authority before her appointment to ComReg.

She has also worked with the European Commission, Telecom Éireann (now Eircom) and multinational Ericsson. She qualified as an engineer.

Her departure comes as the regulator continues to grapple with the problem of opening up telephone exchanges belonging to the dominant player, Eircom, to competition.

Other players in the industry have been seeking access to the link between telephone exchanges and households and businesses.

This will allow them to offer their own products, particularly in high-speed broadband services, as opposed to simply acting as wholesalers for Eircom. The process is seen as vital to developing telecoms services in the State.

ComReg is currently overseeing talks between Eircom and its competitors aimed at resolving the problem. Recently, its biggest competitor, BT Ireland, said some progress was being made.

Last year, the High Court shot down a ComReg directive to Eircom aimed at dealing with the issue, one of a number of cases it has lost.

However,last month, the court vindicated the regulator's decision to withdraw the offer of a mobile licence to Smart Telecom.