Eircom has signed a deal worth £5 million (€6.35 million) over five years and taken a small equity investment in an UK Internet payment infrastructure company, Earthport.

Under the terms of the deal, Eircom will host Earthport's Internet payment hardware and application infrastructure in its managed services centre in Dublin.

Eircom will also develop a strategy to market Earthport's e-wallet payment system to its customer base of more than one million users.

Earthport, which was recently listed on the AIM stock exchange, develops payments systems which enable users to purchase goods over the Internet without using cash.

As part of the deal Eircom will take a small equity stake, under 1 per cent, in Earthport. Eircom will purchase 375,000 ordinary shares at a significant premium to the current price of 95 pence sterling.

Earthport's Internet payment system is currently being tried by Egg and MVIVA and a trial is being developed with Barclays.