The independent telecom operator, ITG Group, has doubled its private payphone installation and service market after buying out a competitor, the privately-owned company, Trexco Communications, in a deal worth £1.6 million.

ITG said Trexco - whose majority stakeholder was a Dublin businessman, Mr John Sherwood - was acquired for a down payment of £1.1 million. A further payment of £500,000 is dependent on turnover levels being maintained above £1 million in the year to May 31st, 1999. "They would have been our leading independent competitor in the private payphone market," the managing director of ITG, Mr Maurice Healy, said yesterday.

The acquisition increases the number of private payphones operated by ITG to about 1,000. Mr Healy added that the organic growth potential of the sector was strong. Phone numbers would increase to 1,500 within months, he said.

ITG has also entered the public payphone market, with installations in Dublin and Dun Laoghaire, and applications filed for sites in Cork and Limerick. ITG indicated it would be making its first foray into the British market shortly.