Esat Clear has begun its latest attempt to win over home phone users with its "100 free minutes" promotion. First-time subscribers will be entitled to 100 free minutes of weekend calls to anywhere in Ireland each month for three months.

The promotion will be supported by a press, radio and outdoor advertising campaign which will run until May 3rd with a media outlay of £100,000 (€126,970). Power of 7 planned the campaign and Des O'Meara is the media buyer.

Research findings from Amarach Consulting suggest 13 per cent of people intend switching telephone company during the next six months. This was the first industry research since deregulation last September.

A higher figure for potential account switchers could have been expected, given the potential for pent-up consumer frustration that a monopoly encourages. But Esat considers the 13 per cent figure to be very positive.

"Deregulation was big business within the industry but there are still a lot of consumers who simply don't know that they can switch telephone companies," says Mr Michael Farrelly, customers acquisitions manager for the company. "This initiative is only one of many and our ongoing communications campaign is aimed at increasing awareness of Esat's services and how easy it is to switch." Mr Farrelly considers another explanation for the figure is that Telecom's impending flotation has encouraged a wait-and-see approach among residential customers.