Twenty-nine telecommunications licences were awarded by the Director of Telecommunications Regulation yesterday, marking the beginning of full liberalisation of the market.

Among those who got licences were Esat Telecom, Ocean (the British Telecom/ESB joint venture company) and Telecom Eireann, the state company which was being licensed for the first time.

"This is a very important development in the future of the Irish telecommunications market, the Regulator, Ms Etain Doyle said. "My office now has the key elements in place to facilitate the opening of the market."

Although Ms Doyle's office provided the names of those who have been awarded licences, it was unable to publish even a brief resume of those companies. A number of them are unknown to even existing telecoms players. A spokeswoman said all the licence applications had been confidential and "had to be treated in that manner."

Full liberalisation of the market was brought in 13 months ahead of schedule, by Public Enterprise Minister Ms O'Rourke. The decision to do was was taken last March as the Minister feared the EU derogation, which protected Telecom Eireann in certain sectors of the market, would hold back the development of telecoms services.

Ms Doyle admitted the timetable set by Ms O'Rourke had been very challenging and paid tribute to her staff for their work. Ms Doyle said she believes the type of regulation that has been developed will allow competition to work and will help encourage market entry. "It will also herald a fast transition to an era where consumers are offered the best possible telecoms services at an affordable price," she said.

Those who received the licences welcomed deregulation. "On the eve of full liberalisation the awarding of the full licence means we can now get on with the business of providing fully commercial services to our customers," Mr Sean Melly chief executive of MCI WorldCom said.

There are two types of licence. The first is a general telecommunications licence which permits the holder to provide telecoms networks and services including voice telephony to the public. The second licence, known as a basic telecommunications licence does not cover voice telephony and services involving numbers, but is tailored to specialised companies, providing for example, data , Internet and cable-based services.