Labour - Delivering broadband is Dempsey's major challenge

damien

Labour Press Release

Labour Party Spokesperson on Communications, Deputy Tommy Broughan, has said that new Minister Noel Dempsey’s biggest challenge is “to succeed where his predecessor Dermot Ahern failed in the delivery of broadband access to all Irish towns, households and schools”

Deputy Broughan commented, “Despite the initial rolling-out of broadband, which came well behind most other European countries, serious problems with uptake and delivery of service remain.

“There have been continual complaints about the quality of the Eircom national communications grid for the roll out of broadband, with the Government either unable or disinclined to do anything about it.

“Ireland is years behind Europe and America in broadband delivery. Moreover, there are an alarming number of households which have failed the ‘quality test indicator’, many of whom have been in contact with me complaining their phone cannot be enabled for DSL quality broadband.

“I have repeatedly called on ComReg to publish its findings on the alarming reports that at least one third of Irish households have a landline incapable of receiving a broadband upgrade. If so, Minister Dempsey walking into one of the greatest scandals in Irish economic life.

“The latest statistics from the Department of Communications claimed that that nearly 6% of Irish households have broadband connectivity. Yet the Neilsen Net Ratings for August 2004 show US broadband penetration exceeding 50% of active internet using households. Ireland clearly has a long way to go.

“In terms of schools, Minister Dempsey must aim at the very least to meet the targets Dermot Ahern so abjectly failed to achieve. Broadband access must be available in 4000 schools by this time next year, and every child in the country doing their schoolwork on PCs by 2008. We will keep a close eye on whether or not he gets anywhere near either of these.

“The technological advance of broadband will change the way we live and work, but to reap the benefits of it, we must invest heavily in this technology to bring Ireland up to the highest international standards. Broadband is Noel Dempsey’s biggest challenge.”

eircomtribunal

damien.m wrote:

Labour Press Release
“The latest statistics from the Department of Communications claimed that that nearly 6% of Irish households have broadband connectivity. Yet the Neilsen Net Ratings for August 2004 show US broadband penetration exceeding 50% of active internet using households. Ireland clearly has a long way to go.

Both the 6% of the DCMNR and the 50% of Tommy are wrong - as we discussed on other threads. Tommy is comparing apples with pears.

In Ireland we have at the moment (taking the figure of 90 000 broadband subscriptions) "2.25 subscribers per 100 inhabitants" (OECD definition of Broadband penetration). As a lot (over half) of these 90 000 subscriptions are for businesses – I am not aware that figures are available – I estimate that only about 3% of households have Broadband.

Tommy's wrong figure comes from the different American usage/definition of "household Broadband penetration", meaning "percent of households with Internet connection that have a broadband connection". So Nielsen's 50% really mean: 50% of US Internet households connect via broadband, as opposed to connecting via narrowband.

The US equivalent to our Irish 3% household bb penetration rate would be between 25% and 30%. 25/30 out of 100 US households have a bb connection.

The Irish equivalent to the American 50% bb penetration measurement is 7% (according to latest Comreg/Amarach report, namely 3% dsl and 4% cable). 7 out of 100 Irish households connected to the Internet are connected via broadband.

What Tommy should have said is: While in the US over half of the households that are connected to the Internet have broadband connectivity, only 7% of Irish Internet households use broadband.


P.



The Nielsen link which tricked Tommy is here

U.S. Broadband Connections Reach Critical Mass,Crossing 50 Percent Mark for Web Surfers

Broadband connections for the first time reached 51 percent of the American online population at-home during the month of July, as compared to 38 percent last July.

Sixty-three million Web users connected to the Internet via broadband during July 2004 as compared to 61.3 million accessing the Internet through narrowband. Overall growth for broadband connections rose 47 percent year-over-year, while narrowband dropped 13 percent annually