Telecom Eireann and Eircell have been deemed to be the only operators with a significant share of the Irish telecommunications market, meaning there will be additional conditions in their licences upon full deregulation of the sector on December 1st.

This is revealed in a decision notice on significant market power published by the office of the director of telecommunications regulation. The decision follows a consultative study of four telecommunications markets: fixed telephony; mobile telephony; the provision of leased lines; and the national interconnection market (charges for calls terminated on a network). The regulator found that Telecom Eireann has significant market power in the fixed telephony, leased line and interconnect markets, while its subsidiary Eircell holds the same position in the mobile telephony market.

No mobile operator was deemed to have such power in the interconnect market.

The determination has several consequences for Telecom Eireann and Eircell.

Firstly, under EC telephony directives, they will have to meet all reasonable requests for access to and services on their networks. Such access and service must be subject to the same conditions and of the same quality as those provided to themselves or their subsidiaries.

Access and services will also have to meet certain quality standards and charges will have to be "cost oriented, transparent, unbundled and independent of the application to which they are put", according to the regulator. Beyond conditions arising from EC directives, the determination will mean extra conditions in licences issued by the regulator. Significant market power is defined as more than 25 per cent of a given market. It is determined principally by value of turnover but the volume of market share is also taken into account.

The regulator's document estimates that Telecom Eireann has a 96 per cent share of revenue from the fixed telephone market and has 100 per cent of the leased line market (reduced to "over 70 per cent" when resale is taken into account).

It estimates Eircell has 78 per cent of the mobile telephony market (or 75.6 per cent using EC measurement techniques).

Using the EC techniques, Esat Digifone narrowly avoided significant market power classification in this category as the regulator found it had 24.4 per cent of the market.

Telecom Eireann is estimated to have 70 to 80 per cent of the interconnection market, depending on the measurement technique used. The regulator has not revealed the mobile operators' market share in this market, but says they are both under 25 per cent.