Eircell sold 200,000 mobile phones in December and added more than 100,000 subscribers to its network during a three-day period over Christmas.

Figures from the mobile operator show huge demand for mobile phones and mark them out as last year's most popular Christmas gift. Mobile sales are almost certain to beat analysts' expectations of between 250,000 to 270,000 unit sales and will probably push mobile penetration rates over 60 per cent for the State. The Eircell network carried a total of 36 million text messages in 12 days over Christmas. Thirteen million voice calls were made on Christmas day, compared with just four million calls the previous Christmas.

An Eircell spokeswoman said yesterday most of the phones sold were pre-paid Ready to Go phones but final figures on the breakdown between these and contract phones were not available.

She said some customers had experienced delays getting on the network during Christmas because of the level of activity but this had been "managed".

Corporate figures from Esat Digifone were not available yesterday, due to its impending flotation as part of BT Wireless. However, the company's chief executive, Mr Barry Maloney, said he did not expect to beat Eircell's figures.

The Vodafone Group, which has made an offer for Eircell, announced yesterday it had gained 13.2 million new customers worldwide in the fourth quarter last year. This figure included 1.4 million in the UK and five million in continental Europe.

The sales figures will provide little cheer for the third licensed Irish mobile operator, Meteor, which has yet to roll out its service.