There are four 20-year licences on offer in the competition. Three are type B licences, which cost €114 million each and have lower roll-out requirements of 53 per cent of the population. (Vodafone and O2 applied for this.)

There is one type A licence, which costs €51 million. Licensees must cover 80 per cent of the population at a quicker pace than under Licence B. Licensees should also encourage virtual operators to enter the market.

(Vodafone, O2 and Hutchison Whampoa applied for this licence.)

Each bid will be evaluated on a range of technical and performance-based criteria by independent consultants.

The regulator will announce the award of the licences on June 27th.

The regulator reserves the right to re-issue any licences not awarded during the competition.

Successful bidders can defer some of their licence fee payments over a 15-year period under a compromise proposal agreed by the regulator and Mr McCreevy.