The High Court last night granted Eircom a judicial review against enforcement proceedings taken by communications regulator ComReg on local loop unbundling.
Earlier this week ComReg again threatened Eircom with legal action and possible financial penalties over the issue.
Local loop unbundling is the process which allows Eircom's rivals to gain access to the telephone line between the local telephone exchange and the customer. ComReg had ordered Eircom to respond by 11am this morning to requests from rival telecoms firms for developments to LLU products and processes which would allow them to offer high-speed internet services.
Meanwhile, ComReg has issued draft directions aimed at encouraging consumers and business to make phone calls over the internet sooner rather than later.
Voice over Internet Phone services are established in a number of countries. Here, 076 prefixed numbers were made available last year to telecoms providers.
But so far there has been no success in negotiating terms to allow such numbers to be connected to the wider telecoms mobile and land line networks.
ComReg is intervening to assist industry to put in place a preliminary framework for prices and settlements. ComReg's David Gunning said the purpose was to speed up the availability of VOIP to the Irish market.
