Mr. Pat Galvin:

My interpretation of the question is that it concerns whether investing in fibre will disadvantage other operators.

As eircom develops its recently announced next generation access fibre services, be it fibre to the Cabinet or, ultimately, the home, all of the investment is for the purpose of competition at the retail end. There are two reasons for this. First, it makes commercial sense for companies such as eircom and other platform owners represented today to have as much traffic on their networks as possible. We talked about making a profit and having a return. Clearly, the more traffic there is on the network, the better. That is the commercial motivation for eircom. Notwithstanding this, as eircom is a rigorously regulated company, the investment is subject to very clear regulations that oblige us to allow full access to the network at wholesale and network levels to other operators which then resell at the retail end. The fibre investment we have made stimulates competition at the retail end. That is a fundamental principle of eircom's business plan, notwithstanding the fact that the regulatory obligation obtains.

These are not easy issues because regulation has an impact on pricing, roll-out plans and the speed of development. These are complex issues on which we have many discussions with ComReg. In essence, the more we invest in fibre as a platform owner, the more benefits that will accrue everywhere, including in communities of 800 or 900 people that would never have anticipated receiving services such as this, not only from eircom but also from other retail operators represented here that use our network.

Let me consider the wider issue of sharing. As Dr. Healy said, it makes technological sense not to duplicate in the mobile area when we can have sharing agreements. That makes eminent commercial sense for the industry. We engage in this practice voluntarily and willingly based on negotiated commercial agreements.