LAST June the Government sold a 20 per cent strategic stake in Telecom Eireann to a consortium of Dutch telecom group KPN and Telia AB of Sweden. Under EU rules, the telecoms markets in most EU member states must be entirely open to competition from January 1st, 1998.
According to reports at the weekend, the European Commission is about to grant the Government's request to delay the full liberalisation of its telecoms market until January 1st, 2000 - two years later than most of its EU partners.
But the Commission will require Ireland to allow so called alternative telecoms networks, operated by some utility companies, to carry liberalised services earlier than it wanted.
And in a decision which could be adopted as early as this week, the Commission is expected to rule that Ireland must allow mobile telephone operators to interconnect their networks with other mobile or fixed networks from January 1st, 1999.