Steadily growing interest in public wireless local access networks (WLANs) will bring the greatest financial rewards to phone and mobile operators, rather than the independent, niche operators who dominate the sector today.

According to Mr Richard Dineen, analyst with British-based Ovum, the wireless (or wi-fi) sector remains "highly fragmented, chaotic and experimental today", with low public awareness of wireless, especially in Europe.

But the future promise of the sector is demonstrated by the arrival of blue-chip companies like Cisco and Intel, which is pushing its Centrino chipset that makes laptop computers "wi-fi ready", he said.

Telcos and "cellcos" (mobile operators) will dominate the public wi-fi access market by 2008, Mr Dineen said, because they had established brands, could provide customer service, and already had relationships with home and business clients.

Mr Dineen was speaking at the launch of Esat/BT's "hotspot in a box" for small premises - an off-the-shelf wireless network product that enables shops, pubs and small hotels to offer a wireless internet access point to customers.

Esat/BT also announced a partnership with Dell, under which it will offer a free trial month of access to its 50 wi-fi "hotspots" in Ireland on wi-fi-enabled laptops purchased from Dell by corporate customers, who can also get a 50 per cent discount on an annual wi-fi subscription.

Esat/BT will offer 150 Irish wi-fi sites by March, said Mr Alan Hall, director of new business development, BT Northern Ireland.

Mr Hall defended access prices of €10 an hour or €20 for 24-hour access, and monthly subscription packages at €120, contrasting the higher cost of using a mobile phone to download email and files over a similar period.

"There are corporates who would see that as good value for money," he said.

Mr Dineen said the relative immaturity of the European market would keep access prices higher than in Asia or North America in the short term.