Thousands of Irish customers who receive itemised telephone bills will not have to pay a £4 (#5) monthly charge levied by Eircom from next year.

A direction issued yesterday by the telecoms regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, means Eircom will have to offer its customers a free service by December 31st, 2001.

However, Eircom labelled the directive "discriminatory" last night and warned that the cost implications for the company were disproportionately high due to its 1.6 million customer base.

Eircom also said it strongly refuted that it was non-compliant with a relevant EU regulation and criticised the fact that it was the only operator to receive the direction.

Ms Doyle has defined the minimum level of the service as calls charged at levels above five pence with details of the destination telephone number, date, time and duration given.

Other charges including rental must be shown separately.

This would bring Eircom into compliance with the relevant EU Directive on the provision of voice telephony services, she added.

The regulator said she would continue to monitor its provision, and will consider, by the deadline of December 31st, 2001, whether further directions to other licensed operators are required.

Calls that are free of charge to the calling subscriber should not be identified in any way on their bill, such as FreeFone calls.

This is to protect those who make calls to helplines.

An Eircom spokeswoman said last night that all customers could view their bills free of charge online by registering with the company.