If there are any unbelievers who doubted the extent to which competition will further reform the shape and scale of the Irish telecoms sector, they may be persuaded by the free Internet access services announced by Ocean and Gateway this week.

But if that's not enough, a glance at the latest offerings in Britain by NTL, the cable company which won out in the bidding battle for ownership of Cablelink, gives a clear indication of what's ahead here.

The company has just announced national call rates below those of British Telecom (3p per minute for daytime calls, 2p for evenings and 1p at weekends; Internet calls 2p per minute at peak times and 1p per minute off-peak) and will launch Britain's first digital cable television service in September.

New services will include Enhanced TV which, it is said, will combine broadcast signals with Internet commands, enable viewers to watch television and search the Internet at the same time.

And coming to a screen near you!