ComReg withdraws Eircom ruling

Communications regulator, ComReg, has withdrawn an instruction to Eircom that led to the two parties clashing in the High Court earlier this year.

ComReg confirmed yesterday that it has withdrawn the instruction to Eircom, which was aimed at getting it open up a vital part of its network to competitors.

ComReg attempted to enforce the ruling on Eircom in January, but the telecoms company successfully claimed in the High Court that the regulator was effectively denying its right to appeal this to a State panel on electronic communications.

The court ruled against ComReg last July. The regulator said yesterday that after considering the ruling, it had decided to withdraw the direction.

The direction covered the means by which competitors could get access to the link between Eircom's exchanges and consumers' telephones - known as the local loop.

Opening this link allows Eircom's competitors to connect their own equipment with customers' homes, and gives them scope for selling them extra products and services. Without it, they have to rent lines from Eircom at wholesale rates.

The direction specifically dealt with the systems that Eircom should have in place to allow consumers to keep their numbers when switching between telecoms companies and shifting large numbers of subscribers from services offered via the wholesale line rental system to those offered through the local loop.

ComReg issued the direction after asking Eircom's competitors what they required to get access to the local loop. Eircom has since pledged to respond to both its competitors and the regulator on this issue by October 24th next.

Meanwhile, the company's shareholders voted yesterday to approve the rights issue that will pay for its €420 million take over of mobile player Meteor.

At a short extraordinary general meeting in Dublin, the company's shareholders approved a rights issue that will involve stockholders being offered five new shares for every 12 existing shares that they hold, and gave the board the authority to proceed with this.