Esat Telecom has purchased the operations of Global One in the Republic and become the alliance's Irish partner, the company said yesterday. Esat said it paid $5 million (€4.6 million) to conclude the deal. Global One is the worldwide joint venture of Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and Sprint, has a presence in some 65 countries, and had revenues in 1998 of $1.1 billion (€1 billion).

Esat's chief operating officer, Mr Sean Corkery, said his company could now offer its own and Global One's existing customers a complete range of broadband telecommunications applications in the Republic, and give them access to one of the world's largest global networks.

Industry analysts said Global One had around 50 large customers in the Republic, typically multinational companies with high telecommunications traffic such as through the use of call centres. The purchase of its operations in the Republic gave Esat the capacity to compete for such large-scale customers, one analyst said.