The opportunities to invest in the telecoms sector appear to be growing apace. Aside from the chance to buy Telecom Eireann and Deutsche Telekom shares, investors can opt for Irish Life's new Telescope product or choose a new global telecom fund which has been launched by Hibernian Investment Managers.

The unit-linked fund will be primarily invested in the larger blue-chip stocks such as France Telecom, Germany's Mannesmann, Nokia of Finland and Telefonica of Spain as well as US stocks such as Cisco Systems and AT&T. The fund will also apply to purchase Telecom Eireann shares on flotation.

According to Hibernian, investment in telecoms gives exposure to the fastest-growing consumer product, the mobile phone; the information revolution in the form of data transmission through cables and the most rapidly expanding means of product distribution, the Internet.