Ocean, the telecommunications company owned by BT and the ESB, said yesterday it would spend more than €250,000 (£197,000) running tests of its proposed wireless services. The firm acquired a test licence for the service and hopes to boost its bid for a permanent licence by demonstrating the capacity of the new technology involved.

Ocean said it would establish two sites in Dublin and use technology supplied by Lucent to transmit large volumes of voice and data-rich material between these. Ocean said if it were granted a full licence, it could offer small businesses broadband telecommunications services at a lower cost.