Smart's new chairman and chief executive John Riordan said the National Broadband Scheme . . . a government tender to bring highspeed internet connections to unserved rural and uneconomic areas . . . was "high up the agenda" once the company was privatised.

Riordan said Smart would offer a bid for the national scheme as part of a consortium of other operators. He said if Smart and partners did not win the government blind auction "it would not affect our five-year plan".

"I was surprised at the way the government issued this tender as a single contract as no one single company in Ireland has the capability to cover the whole country, " said Riordan. "It has to be a consortium."

Riordan refused to reveal partners in the NBS consortium, and said the company's pressing focus was expanding its data, broadband and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to the corporate, SME and residential sectors . . . markets valued at 2.4bn.

Murtagh's company Smart YuRoE Broadband Broadband (SYB) took over the business of Smart Telecom last October for the sum of 1 alongside a 10% stake in the bidding company after Eircom pulled the plug on 45,000 Smart customers over unpaid debts.

SYB completed a 40m cash refinancing of Smart last week ahead of its final de-listing from the stock exchange next Friday 29 June. Murtagh will merge his T50 Dublin fibre network with SYB in exchange for new shares adding around 25m .

Murtagh said the cash injection marked a new phase in the company's development and had "drawn a line in the sand with the past", although SYB will continue to pay outstanding creditors.

Smart Telecom said the final aspect of its reorganisation was the appointment of Paul Talbot as its chief financial officer last week.