Eircom is hopeful it will reach agreement with Telia in the next few days over the fate of the Swedish group's 14 per cent stake in the company. Eircom chief executive Mr Alfie Kane yesterday met Mr Jan-Ake Kark, his opposite number at Telia, in Dublin to discuss the issue.

The Irish group is putting pressure on Telia to declare its intentions so as to facilitate the disposal by KPN of its 21 per cent stake in Eircom. Both KPN and Telia had been expected to announce the details of a secondary offering of their joint stake last month when Eircom reported its annual results. Telia pulled out at the last moment.

Sources close to yesterday's discussions said that the most likely outcome still remained an agreement by Telia to "lock up" its shares for six to nine months. This would allow KPN to proceed with a secondary offering next month. Eircom has pointed out to Telia that it promised to sell its shares in Eircom last year when it was in merger discussions with Telenor, the Norwegian state phone company. Even though the merger collapsed, the commitment by Telia to sell its shares by this August still stands, according to Eircom's interpretation of the agreement.

The extent of the competition that Eircom is now facing in its fixed-line business was revealed yesterday. Ms Etain Doyle, the telecommunications industry regulator, said that new entrants to the market now account for 10 per cent of the fixed-line market, which includes domestic phones.

Ms Doyle also confirmed that Meteor, the operator of the planned third mobile phone network, will receive its licence within the next two weeks.