Some consumers in rural areas will face additional charges to get connected to a phone line under new rules agreed yesterday by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg).

New universal service obligations agreed between ComReg and Eircom will enable the telecoms firm to levy extra connection charges to people who live in remote or rural areas.

Under the new rules, if connecting a customer to Eircom's telephone network costs the firm more than €7,000 the customer will have to meet the additional cost of the connection fee.

In the past Eircom had a universal service obligation to connect customers to its network for free.

However, the firm has complained that the increase in one- off housing and its obligation to connect customers was costing it up to €40 million every year.

There have also been an escalating number of complaints from the public over the past few years about the length of time that Eircom is taking to connect their homes to its network.

Under the previous universal service rules Eircom had to respond to reasonable requests for a phone line at the standard cost to the consumer of €121.93.

ComReg has estimated that just 0.13 per cent of total requests for connection, amounting to about 100 people per year, will cost more than €7,000.

ComReg has also set a performance timetable for the timely delivery of telephone connections in the document, which range from four weeks to a year.

The proposed delivery timetable is: 60 per cent of requests should be met within four weeks; 80 per cent within eight weeks; 90 per cent within 13 weeks; 95 per cent within 26 weeks; and 100 per cent within 52 weeks.

ComReg said it was a prominent view that broadband should be a universal service obligation. However, this was not possible under EU legislation, it said.