Fund-raising may no longer be as easy as it was in the past for some younger companies - what with telecoms' valuations being hit by the cost of buying third-generation mobile phone licences, and technology companies being undermined by the sharp fall in investor confidence - but some seem to be weathering it worse than others.

Spirit, one of the newer arrivals on the Irish telecommunications scene, appears to be having a particularly lean time of it.

Far from hailing the end of the Eircell/Digifone duopoly, as heralded by David Ryan in announcing the arrival of Spirit's new mobile phone service, the new arrival is merely sub-letting Eircell minutes from rival service Imag!ne. The Margin can't quite see Eircell quaking in its boots over this. Maybe that is why Spirit is holding a party to mark the first anniversary of its arrival in the Irish fixed-line market in a multi-storey car park.