The stock markets may be pretty sickly just now, but there seems to be no end to the appetite for telecom stocks, and that augurs well for the flotation of Telecom Eireann in nine months time. "Telcos", as the market describes them, seem to be immune to the current investor apathy.

Two big telco share issues are already in the marketplace - the £4 billion-plus privatisation of Swisscom from Switzerland and the £10 billion public offering by Japanese telco, DoCoMo. Now it looks like the French government is going ahead with the sale of another chunk of France Telecom with a £4 billion price tag on the 12 per cent being sold.

Merrill Lynch and AIB, co-advisers to the Government, will no doubt be keeping a close eye on how the various telco share offerings are received in the market, but the indications are good that the Swiss, Japanese and French share issues will be well-subscribed. And that augurs well for the Telecom Eireann float.