Eircom's planned introduction of its ADSL broadband internet service faces a delay of several months. The telecom regulator's office is seeking further information on the wholesale charges it plans to levy on other service providers buying access to the "local loop" - the physical circuit between the customer's premises and the telecom operator's local switch.

The regulator yesterday issued an information notice stating that she was reviewing Eircom's bitstream pricing proposals.

Bitstream access, one of the methods competitors can use to access Eircom's local loop, involves Eircom installing a high-speed link to a customer's premises and then making this access available to third parties to enable them to provide high-speed services to customers. Eircom would charge a fee for this wholesale broadband internet facility, which is designed to provide low-cost access to small and medium-sized businesses.

"We are concerned that they haven't proven their prices are cost orientated," a spokeswoman for the regulator's office said. "Cost orientation means Eircom can recover the costs of an efficient operator plus a reasonable return on capital."

The regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, has given Eircom until September 5th to reply. She said it may take up to two months for her office to complete its examination of the findings. Eircom cannot introduce its own ADSL or high-speed internet service over existing copper phone wires until then, effectively delaying its planned roll-out of the service next month.

"We understand the regulator is looking for further information but we haven't received the details of that yet," said an Eircom spokeswoman.

"We have major concerns over any delays in rolling out our DSL product. We would ask why did it take the regulator over a month to come back for further information when we first submitted our pricing on July 20th."

But the regulator's move was welcomed by Esat/BT, which is understood to be the only potential buyer of the wholesale service.

"On the basis of what we saw, there were serious barriers to entry and this would have affected competition and the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation seems to have agreed," said Mr David Taylor, director of regulatory affairs at Esat.