Eircom has responded to a direction from the Telecoms Regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, to reduce interconnect rates significantly for other operators by publishing new interim rates which are 23 per cent lower than end of 1999 levels. New entrants to the market have to connect with Eircom's network as it takes a number of years for them to build up a nationwide network of their own. The new offer presents operators with the most significant fall in interconnect rates since liberalisation in December 1998, according to Ms Doyle.