The European Commission is expected to decide today whether it will take legal action against member-states which have failed to open their local telecoms networks to competition.

The Government could be one of several in the EU targeted by the Commission over a failure to enable competing firms to access these local networks.

Owned by incumbent operator Eircom, they are considered essential to enable growth in competition and multimedia services. Despite a commission regulation mandating access from January 1st, 2002, no operators here have been able to supply services to customers over these networks.