THE switchboard has put you on hold. Trapped in a repetitious vortex of muzak twixt Greensleves and pan pipes, with the cost of your call mounting, the irritation factor is high. It could be worse, at least there are no advertising jingles. But here's a dilemma. What if a company offered a free telephone service whose only catch is random interruptions from short advertising spots? The public and advertisers were rushing this week to subscribe to just such an embryonic service in southern Sweden, with advertisers positively salivating at the prospect of a captive audience.

The 10-second ads, which can be heard by both parties on the phone, come on after the first minute and again every three minutes after that. As yet long-distance calls and mobile phone calls are not included in the system. Alarmingly a spokesman for the company, which claims to have invested and patented the system, says that this type of telephony is here to stay". Whisper it softly in the corridors of Telecom Eireann.