While few predicted from the start the sums companies were prepared to pay, the battle for Cablelink was always going to be hard-fought. At stake is far more than the right to go on providing 15 or so television stations to around 360,000 customers - the bidders knew that whoever won would almost immediately become a leading telecommunications, Internet and value-added cable and video company in the Republic.

All of the bidders made it clear that on top of the price tag, they would spend around £200 million (€254 million) on a complete revamp of Cablelink's network. Such an upgrade could be done within a year, and would give subscribers access to "broadband", the next wave of digital technology.

Cablelink subscribers are likely to find their television service greatly improved, with a far greater choice of channels. Instead of going to a video shop to rent a tape, they will be able to pay a fee through their set-top box, rapidly download a film from a huge library of titles, and watch it at whatever time they wish. The Internet access provided by cable companies is up to 50 times faster than the standard 28.8 Kbps. This fact alone is likely not only to prove extremely attractive with current Internet surfers, tired of what some have dubbed the World Wide Wait, but also encourage rapid expansion of Internet use by families and businesses.

Because of the capacity of modern cable networks, Cablelink's new owner will also be able to offer subscribers a full telephone service, operating as a direct rival to Telecom Eireann.

In fact, over the past months, Telecom Eireann executives have watched with glee as the estimated price tag for Cablelink rose from £220 million, to £300 million, to £400 million, to £500 million. Not only does such a price raise more than double the amount originally expected for the State-owned company, it could also mean that a future telecommunications rival could have to charge its customers more, reducing its competitive threat to Telecom Eireann.

For this reason, the stakes were particularly high for Esat, whose position as the State's number two telephone company would be greatly enhanced if it bought Cablelink, but seriously undermined if it did not.

Part of the strength of Esat's bid lay in its partner for the purchase, the US-based Charter Communications. Charter, which is owned by Microsoft co-founder Mr Paul Allen, specialises in buying cable networks and revamping them to a high technological standard for video, Web and telephony.

Analysts also predicted that if TCI Ireland - made up of the US TCI group and Prince's Holdings, a subsidiary of Independent Newspapers - did not win, any of the others would attempt to buy Prince's Holdings' 160,000-subscriber network.

Regardless of the outcome, industry analysts expect a consolidation of the Republic's cable market. Apart from Prince's Holdings, another of the bidders for Cablelink, the Dublin-based CMI, is likely to prove attractive to larger firms.