As if the past 10 days have not been trying enough for the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation, it is now facing another bruising battle in the High Court - in addition to its Supreme Court appeal against a recent High Court decision on the third mobile phone licence.

The latest to target the besieged regulator, Etain Doyle, is Eircom, formerly Telecom Eireann.

It is seeking a judicial review of her ruling on how it should make available to rivals its interconnector network.

Eircom may well have learned one valuable lesson from the Orange/Meteor fiasco.

The High Court challenge prevented Meteor from setting up its service, despite being granted the licence.

Similarly, the ruling on interconnector rates - vital to the liberalisation of the market and laid down following European Commission regulations - is suspended pending the outcome of the latest action.

It now appears there is more than one way to skin a regulator; you can simply neutralise the process by court appeal.