ESAT Digifone has signed up 65,000 subscribers for its mobile phone service since its inception last March. The company has also warned that it will be scrutinising the conditions of the third mobile phone licence to ensure it does not disadvantage Digifone.

Digifone chief executive, Mr Barry Maloney, said the company's subscriber base was ahead of target. He forecast that the company could increase this to 90,000 by the end of the year. Originally, it had planned for around 50,000 subscribers in its first year of operation.

Mr Maloney said it now had 18 per cent of the total mobile market, or 31 per cent of the GSM (or digital) market. He said it far exceeds anything achieved by other second operators entering mobile markets in Europe. Mr Maloney denied a report, which quoted figures released by Telenor, Digifone's 45 per cent shareholder, which suggested a possible fall-off in new customer numbers. Mr Maloney said the figure of 50,000 for the number of subscribers joining Digifone to the end of July were "wrong".

A third mobile phone licence could be awarded by the end of March next year. Known as a PCN or DCS-1800 licence, it operates on a different frequency and is very suited to areas of large population.

Mr Maloney said whatever conditions applied to the new incumbent should also apply to Esat Digifone. It also wants a DCS licence.

Mr Maloney also queried whether anyone had examined if awarding additional licences in Ireland was feasible, given the size of the population. There were also questions as to when the service would be rolled out and what areas it would cover.

Digifone said yesterday it had now achieved coverage of 90 per cent of the population (it was 80 per cent at launch) and 75 per cent geographic coverage (57 per cent at launch).

Mr Maloney said the company, had invested £100 million in the economy to date. It now employs more than 400 people, of which 190 are based at its customer care centre in Limerick.