Eircom, formerly Telecom Eireann, published separate regulatory accounts relating to its financial year 1998/99 last weekend. Relations between Eircom and the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR) are somewhat strained at present and indeed, Eircom is taking the regulator to the High Court, over one issue. On September 30th, just a couple of weeks after Eircom indicated it was taking a High Court action against the regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, her office "notified the market" of Eircom's late request for an extension of 20 working days to the time in which it was allowed to publish its separated accounts.

"The late delivery of this information has serious implications for the liberalisation process," she declared.

She also said in a statement that she had invited the chief executive of Eircom, Mr Alfie Kane, to meet her that afternoon about the matter.

However, the Margin notes that Eircom could not let it slip. When issuing its own notice about lodging the separated accounts last weekend, Eircom went to great pains to point out that it was only the third operator in Europe (next to BT and KPN) to publish audited regulatory accounts. "In addition, the timescale within which they have been produced following liberalisation of the market is the most efficient ever," it said.

Looks like it's one-all at the moment . . .