In July 1998, Ireland was ranked joint-ninth in Europe in the British Telecom survey of the state of liberalisation of the telecommunications sector. By January this year, Ireland had moved up to fourth place.
A dramatic change of mind and policy within six months – and a hectic time for telecommunications lawyers in Ireland.
The European Commission (EC) granted Ireland a derogation from the community’s liberalisation regime to 1 January, 2000. The deregulation deadline for most other European member states was 1 January, 1998.
