Vol. 520 No. 2
81 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if her attention has been drawn to the fact that Eircom still maintains exclusive use of lines in spite of a commitment arising from deregulation of the telecoms market in 1998 and a commitment from the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation to give limited access to these lines to other telephone providers. [15553/00]
Following my announcement that Ireland would be ending its derogation on full liberalisation in 1998, the Director of Telecommunications Regulation issued 21 general and eight basic telecommunications licences. General licences enable operators to provide a full range of services to the general public, whereas basic licences cover all services other than voice telephony and services involving numbers. This process has been on going and there are now over 44 general licences and 26 basic licences in issue. The interconnection regulations issued in 1998 enable these new entrants to connect their customers with the bulk of telephone users and to carry calls on Eircom's network at rates set by the director.
Telecommunications licenses also allow an operator to build and operate a telecommunication's network of its own. However, it is generally not economically feasible for an operator to roll out its network to the local network or local loop and operators generally rely on Eircom's local network for access to their customers.
Cable operators who also hold telecommunications licences are entitled to offer telephony services over their own cable networks and, therefore, do not need to rely on Eircom's local loop.
