A ruling in the Irish High Court yesterday has thrown plans for a third mobile service in Ireland into confusion. The ruling blocked the award of the licence to the Meteor consortium. 

Meteor had been awarded the licence by the Telecommunications Regulator Etain Doyle but Orange, an unsuccessful bidder, had appealed the decision on the basis that the process under which the licence was awarded was flawed and that the failure of the ODTR to give adequate reasons to Orange for the decision was wrong in law.

The court referred the decision back to the Telecommunications regulator rather than awarding the licence to Orange. In addition it awarded costs estimated to be in the region of  £3 Million to Orange against Meteor and the ODTR.

This ruling has effectively put an end to Meteor's chances of taking a share of the Christmas  market. Furthermore it will allow the existing licence holders, Eircell and Esat Digifone to carve up the market between them.