O2 Ireland  said yesterday a decision by its parent to delay the commercial launch of third-generation mobile telephony in the UK could affect its own roll-out plans.

The firm's director of regulation, Mr John Gunnigan, said that on a broad level the UK decision would have a knock-on effect on the firm which plans to launch its new service by January 1st, 2004.

O2 Ireland, Hutchison Ireland and Vodafone Ireland's third-generation licences all commit the firms to launch some form of third-generation service before 2004. The service will offer users a range of video and internet services to mobile handsets and devices.

However, Hutchison UK has already delayed the launch of its British service for several months and many analysts doubt the ability of firms to launch third-generation services work this year.

Mr Gunnigan would not comment on exactly when O2 Ireland would begin offering its next generation service in the Republic. But he said the UK decision would have an impact on strategy.

"From our point of view, we are looking at the commercial realities of third-generation services in Ireland and the extent to which we invest in the technology," he said.

"Targets are targets and are things on a piece of paper but at the end of the day the question is to invest in something that gets a return for us," he added.

MmO2 - the parent of O2 Ireland and O2UK - said yesterday it was delaying the commercial launch of the new technology in Britain until the second half of 2004. It said it was taking the action because of a regulatory decision in the UK to cut mobile phone charges for users.

O2UK will be particularly affected by Oftel's decision because its British unit accounts for almost two-thirds of revenues.

However, a spokesman for MmO2 was less pessimistic about the chances of O2 Ireland launching this year.

He said the parent firm's decision would only affect the firm's UK operation and would not impact on the Republic.

"We have licence obligations in Ireland and we plan to meet them," he said.

He said the British regulator's decision to cut mobile charges could put Britain in the slow lane.

Vodafone Ireland's head of regulatory affairs said the decision in the UK shouldn't affect the firm's roll-out in the Republic.

But he said the firm would need to assess the impact of any similar regulatory action on prices by the Commission for Communications Regulation.