Eircom has branded as "completely inaccurate" a draft European Commission survey that suggested the company took longer to supply a variety of leased lines and circuits than incumbent telecoms operators in any of the 13 European countries surveyed.

An Eircom company spokesman rejected the comparisons contained in the report and insisted the figures were out by a factor of three or four.

However, the telecoms regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, called for "substantial and rapid" enforcement powers to compel Eircom to meet deadlines for the delivery of leased lines and circuits to other telecoms operators.

Ms Doyle said she was disappointed by the results and claimed Eircom's persistent inadequate delivery of services to operators gave rise to serious concerns for the development of effective competition in the Irish telecoms market.

"Leased lines are important for the development of competition and an essential building block for other licensed operators," she said. "Clearly there is a need for substantial and rapid enforcement powers." The draft report on leased lines for 1999 prepared by the Commission concluded that Eircom took up to nine months to supply certain high capacity circuits.

It said the company's worst performance last year was with high speed 2,048 kilobits per second (kbit/s) digital leased lines, which it took an average of 277 days to deliver.

It said British Telecom took 19 days to supply the same type of line while Luxembourg's incumbent operator took 12 days.

It said Eircom was also slower to supply lower capacity circuits. On average it took 171 days to supply analogue leased lines, for example. In comparison, Portugal's incumbent telecoms operator took seven days to supply an analogue circuit.

Eircom's supply of circuits within specified delivery times has been a source of contention since the market was liberalised in December 1998.

Rival operators Esat Telecom and WorldCom said yesterday the report was clear evidence that Eircom was impeding the development of telecommunications in the Republic.

Eircom rejected the findings. "This is not a verified report and we believe the figures are substantially lower than those provided in it," a spokesman said.

An Esat source claimed the company was still waiting up to five months for some circuits despite new service level agreements introduced in September that compel Eircom to provide lines within 10 days.

Eircom has applied for a judicial review of this agreement, which removes a cap on penalties imposed for late delivery of leased lines.

Eircom has claimed if the cap is removed it could call into question the viability of its leased line business, which could face fines of up to £20 million.