State acting to recoup €11m owed for technology

molinaalexis

State acting to recoup €11m owed for technology

THE STATE has been unable to recoup €33m of its investment in transatlantic broadband technology, the Dail Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday.

The Department of Communications and Marine is taking legal action to try and recover €11m from telecommunications companies who have defaulted on payments for the use of new broadband cables, but the global collapse in demand has seen the value of their remaining capacity plummet from €23m to €2m.


However, the outstanding capacity remains in state ownership for sale at a future date, and has been crucial to persuading major internet companies, such as google and ebay, to locate here, Department secretary general Brendan Tuohy said. "Broadband is to the future what grass is to agriculture. It is what the future economy will be built on."

Information technology was the most important sector of the economy, accounting for €33bn of exports, and it had been crucial for the State to step in to develop that potential or risk ruining the economy, Mr Tuohy said.

The Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell told the PAC that a consultants' review had found the State's €77m investment in laying two new submarine cables between Ireland and the US to be good value for money, but the risk should have been shared with the companies using the technology.

Aideen Sheehan


State acting to recoup €11m owed for technology

thegills

Considering that Hibernia Atlantic paid $27 million for the 360networks transatlantic fibre optic broadband cable system I can't see how the Government will ever recoup their losses.

The network cost $1.2 billion and includes three submarine cables and a cable landing station in each of Halifax, Dublin, Liverpool and Boston - a far superior network. The transatlantic system was part of 360networks' planned worldwide fibre optic broadband system.

spongebob

I wonder what the state will do about certain other investments such as the Western Digital Corridor and the 'black hole' of Castlebar which were never lit or used and whose use is being denied to the investor, the taxpayer.

I actually think that their €77m investment in capacity on Global Crossing has been paid off. albeit indirectly and by accident. If the state had not been seen to be serious about the provision of transatlatic BB we would not have had the investment in Global Crossing in the first place. Had that not happened first I think that 360 Networks would not have invested their money in what is now the Hibernia Atlantic cable.

Billions of $ of US Shareholders money has vanised in a puff of smoke, leaving we Irish with shedloads of transatlantic capacity and a €25 per Mbit per Month cost to New York ( that is 0 contention , resilient and symmetrical by the way). €25 per Mbit per Month in 2003. That woulda been €10,000 per megabit per month in 1998 I should think, just before the government invested .

My recommendation is that it should be written down and that the long term IRU's should be repriced at the market rate with the taxpayer taking the hit. As Eircom have a lot of these IRU's I would expect that every Eircom exchange in Ireland be BB enabled first though . No point showing that ass a carrot without a big stick to hand.

M

Capt'n Midnight

€25 per Mbit per Month

From where (rough physical location) ?
What is the miminum order ?

oscarBravo

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
What is the miminum order ?

€1000/month

spongebob

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
€25 per Mbit per Month

From where (rough physical location) ?

Clonshaugh in Dublin to Hudson St NY

What is the miminum order ?

40Mbits then, you also need a 19" rack in the Hudson St (Lower Manhattan) Telehouse where they terminate which itself costs about €8k a year to hold all your Routers , power included. They may give you 3 U free in one of their own racks.

€1000 a month wont get you 512k in Galway with an Internet Port and a block of IP's .

In Clonshaugh they will charge about €2k a year or maybe less for the rack and again (I think) 3U free in one of their racks if that is all you need.

Put a message in the hosting board about getting a rack in NY collectively maybe.

M