Western Wireless, the US firm which is the majority owner of Meteor, will invest almost €40 million in the Irish telecoms firm this year, the firm's chairman and chief executive said yesterday.

Mr John Stanton, who was visiting Dublin to meet Meteor's management, said Meteor would receive the majority of Western Wireless International's net investment during 2003.

He said the Irish market represented one of the best opportunities for growth among Western Wireless's divisions, with Meteor projecting capturing 10 per cent market share by the end of 2004.

Meteor currently holds just 4 per cent market share in the Republic and has not yet built out a fully national network.

Mr Stewart Sheriff, Meteor's chief executive, said he had legal advice which showed the regulator must now intervene to force its rivals O2 and Vodafone, to offer national roaming.

This would enable Meteor customers to make and receive calls in areas with no Meteor network by piggybacking onto rivals' networks.

Vodafone and O2 have consistently refused to offer access to Meteor, said Mr Sherriff, who plans to make an official request to the Commission for Communications Regulation to intervene.

Meanwhile, Mr Stanton said that if Eircom re-entered the mobile market next year steps would be taken to ensure that there was no conflict of interest caused by Mr George Soros's investment in both Meteor and Eircom. He said this could involve restricting the amount of information available to the Soros investment funds, which hold a stake in both firms.

Mr Stanton also confirmed that Western Wireless dropped a bid for a mobile phone licence in Iraq following the bombing of the UN headquarters in Iraq. A lead investor in the firm's consortium made the decision to drop out as a direct result of the bombing.