Irish regulator ComReg has opened a consultation on a decision to designate Eir as the universal service provider (USP) for public payphones for a 3-month interim period after June 2018. The consultation closes on 05 July.  

Eir was designed as the public payphone USP in June 2014 for a period of four years. With this decision, Eir was required to maintain the number of public payphones in operation at the time, and could only remove them if usage fell below a certain threshold limit. 

ComReg is now seeking views on an interim designation or Eir as the USP for public payphones for the period up to 30 September, or until ComReg makes a final decision on the future need for a USP public payphone designation, whichever is the earlier.