UTV, the Northern Ireland-based media firm, made an aggressive entry into the Irish telecoms market yesterday offering free off-peak calls to consumers.

The company, which owns several Irish radio stations, is introducing a new telephone service that offers consumers free calls to fixed phones in Northern Ireland, the Republic and Britain.

The free calls are available during off-peak hours at weekends and evenings. UTV said the price of calls during peak hours would also be at a discount compared to Eircom's standard rates.

The telecoms service is the first of a range of new packages expected to be launched over the next month, as Eircom's rivals begin offering customers a single bill for both line rental and calls.

UTV said yesterday that it would begin offering a single bill to its customers from October, following the completion of automated testing of single billing.

Until now, just a few companies have been offering single billing to customers, such as Smart Telecom and Access Telecom. Many other firms, including Esat BT and MCI, have held back because the process has not been automated.

But automated trials of wholesale line rental are due to begin on September 1st and both Esat BT and MCI are understood to be preparing their own offerings.

UTV said it would offer telephone line rental at the same price as Eircom, which currently stands at €24.18 per month.

Mr Scott Taunton, group business development director at UTV, said the telephony market had been renowned for confusion about pricing combined with a lack of real competition. He said UTV's telephone service had no hidden charges and no catches.

Consumers who enlist for UTV's service, which is branded UTV Talk, have to sign up for a 12-month contract.

This means that if they decide to discontinue the service they will still be liable to pay line rental charges for the duration of their contract.

To avoid call charges when making fixed line calls in the evening or at weekends consumers will have to hang up and redial after 59 minutes. UTV said this requirement was necessary to help it manage its network.

UTV said it would spend spend €1 million marketing the new telephone service on television and radio.

Consumers can change their telephone supplier by logging on to the UTV website and filling in an application form online.

UTV, which already offers internet services, said yesterday that it had captured 5 per cent of the overall broadband market.