Telecoms company Smart is winding down its door-to-door sales team, according to reports at the weekend.

The division, which employed up to 100 people at one point, has not been securing broadband subscriptions. It originally hoped to win 64,000 customers in this way, but has secured only 18,000, with a further 6,000 in the pipeline.

Numbers employed by the division have fallen to 60 and the company's chief executive, Oisín Fanning,
told newspapers at the weekend that it was not planning to replace people who left.

Customers are phoning in their orders to the company rather than responding to the door-todoor campaign.

The company blamed dominant fixed-line operator Eircom for delays in getting customers to switch to its broadband products.

Smart is awaiting the outcome of its High Court challenge to Comreg's decision to withdraw the offer of a third-generation (3G) licence to the company.

It successfully tendered for the licence last November, but the regulator withdrew the offer in February claiming that Smart had not provided it with the necessary financial bonds that were meant to guarantee that it would meet certain targets in rolling out its network. A verdict in the case is not expected until the next legal term.