ETEL, the Dublin-based telecoms group that operates in central and eastern Europe, has made its second acquisition in Austria in five months. ETel, headed by Irish entrepreneur Mr Sean Melly, has acquired Millennium Communications Network for a sum believed to be in excess of £1 million (€1.27 million).

The Austrian telecoms firm, which employed 22 staff, had 3,500 corporate customers and a residential telecoms business. It had gone into liquidation and was bought by ETel from the Austrian administrator.

ETel, which operates in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, will now have annual revenues worth €75 million (£59 million). In June it acquired Austrian firm RSL COM Austria. Mr Melly said Austrian business was worth about 55 per cent of the ETel group's revenue.