British Telecom: British Telecom is one of the giants of the telecommunications world with sales of over £13 billion sterling. BT is not generally interested in equity stakes in small telecommunications, companies, but as Ireland is BT's fourth-largest trading partner, Telecom Eireann may be a special case.
Unisource: Two companies from the Unisource alliance - Telia of Sweden and PTT Netherlands - have offered to take up to 49 per cent of Telecom Eireann. They have said they would be interested in an alliance and are thought to be favoured by the Communications Workers' Union.
Bell Atlantic: Bell Atlantic is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the United States, with sales in its last financial year of over 13 billion.
Singapore Telecom: Singapore Telecom is the smallest of the six possible bidders, but it is still almost twice the size of Telecom Eireann, with sales of $2.3 billion in its last financial year. It is said to have considerable cash resources available to it at the moment.
Tele Danmark: Like Singapore Telecom, Tele Danmark is considered one of the underdogs in the race to be Telecom's partner. Both companies were part of alliance which won almost 50 per cent of the Belgian state-owned telecommunications, Belgacom, last month. Analysts suggest that the companies' management resources may now be too stretched to take on another alliance in the near future.
Airtouch: The Californian-based company is unique in that it is the only one of the short-listed companies which is solely interested in an alliance with Eircell, Telecom Eireann's mobile phone subsidiary. Industry sources say the company is interested in a stake of between 35 per cent and 49 per cent in Eircell, which some describe as "the jewel in Telecom's crown".