Its great to see that Telecom Eireann is wasting no time getting customers used to its new name Eircom. The new phone books are emblazoned with it, and a little note on the bottom of page 1 says Telecom Eireann will be changing its name to Eircom later this year.

The change is a mammoth task and will also involve rebranding dozens of new telephone boxes which the former State operator installed on the streets earlier this year.

However, its also great to see that the liberalised Telecom, sorry Eircom, has had no qualms about accepting a full page advertisement (double-sided page in fact) in the directory from Ocean, the British Telecom/ESB joint venture telecommunications company. Ocean outlines the benefits of being one of its customers, including lower charges, incentive schemes and per-second billing. A casual phone book browser, would, however, stumble across the Eircom advertisement ("embracing the world of business communications) and the Eircell ad ("Ireland's leading mobile phone network") first. Good to see that Telecom still retains its commercial focus.