Dempsey "I want 500,000 on broadand by end '06"

vinnyfitz

Easily missable interview with Noel Dempsey in an advertising supplement with today's Sunday Tribune.

Extracts, since Trib still don't post stuff on line

Anyone who wants or needs broadband in Ireland should have it within the next three years....

"it has become an essential tool of industry, commerce, education, health care and social inclusion"...

...he lays down a challenge for the industry. "Forget about 100,000 broadband subscribers as a target, forget about 200,000. I want to see an industry target of 500,000 broadband subscribers by the end of 2006 - that's 35% of the customer base - if industry PR is accurate that must be a relaisable challenge" he says.

damien

Challenging industry in a magazine and giving them an extra year before they reach this challenge won't help the 50% who cannot now get broadband.

Urban Weigl

Asking the industry (i.e. Eircom, who own 99% of the lines) does not work. I thought this would be clear to the government by now. I don't blame Eircom: they're a private company and should be allowed to do whatever they want, provided it is within the regulations and laws of the land (that's an important point). What it also means is that when broadband Ireland fails, it isn't Eircom's fault, but rather is is the government's fault for not having the proper regulations and policies in place.

It's time to define "functional internet access" as 512kbps. And as for the 500,000 target, it's time for the minister to stop talking and take action, otherwise this will end up just another failed target, like 300,000 before it. It's time to leave Greece in the dust.

SkepticOne

That's the whole purpose of stuff "challenging the industry". It is to put a distance between DCMNR and the actual results. If the number falls short, it is the industry that has failed the challenge set by Noel.

It needs to be made clear to Dempsey that the low numbers are simply a reflection of ongoing supply problems (low availability, low quality, high price, delay) caused ultimately, by the monopoly position of Eircom and that this is the problem that needs sorting out.

vinnyfitz

Useful to be able to quote it back to him when IOFFL meets him formally though.
The article is quite long and has a load of guff about the role of the Government investing in the infrastructure. Not much of that seemed new to me though.

damien

Broadband for all within three years

by Barry McCall

"Anyone who wants or needs broadband in Ireland should have it within the next three years." So says communications minister Noel Dempsey on his vision for Ireland's broadband infrastructure. "However, I am wary of targets and figures and comparisons with other European countries all the figures tend to be measured differently. What I want to see here is that broadband is available to anyone who needs it."

He points out that broadband is no longer an optional extra. "It has become an essential tool of industry, commerce, education, health care and social inclusion", he says. "It is essential to the future well being of the country. Ireland is at an inflexion point economically and socially. The Celtic Tiger has shown us how to tap the entrepreneurial wellsprings that abound in this country.

"Future economic development and wealth creation depends on our continuing enthusiasm for new skills, new technologies, new opportunities and new challenges." He is keenly aware of the implications of failure to keep pace with international competitors. "Broadband takes both time and distance out of communications, industry in Ireland must continue to take costs out as
well", says minister Dempsey. "Business contacts can be anywhere, anytime, and in a fraction of a second. The world is, literally, at your fingertips. In business, it also means that your competitor is on your heels, and where that is the case cost competitiveness and flexibility are even more important."

And here he comes to the issue of the apparent deficit which has emerged in recent years. "Although the provision of telecommunications services, including broadband, is a matter primarily for the fully-liberalised private sector, there has been in recent years a certain slowness to invest in the necessary infrastructure that will facilitate the provision of broadband services nationwide.

"I understand that companies are driven by commercial imperatives and the need ultimately to make a return on the resources invested in them by their shareholders. " "The immediacy of the need for this return may not always lend itself to investment for the long term. In such cases, government intervention is needed, justified, and let me stress, will continue to the end of the current National Development Plan."

And the government, through the National Development Plan, has been making significant progress in addressing this deficit. "If government intervenes in the market, it is because it considers it to be necessary", says the minister. " It is not a whim on its part. It is a considered response. Its
objective is to grow the market to the benefit of the economy as a whole and
in the long-term interests of Irish economic and social welfare.

Government is responding to the broader public good, that is its job. That is why €200m was set aside under the NDP for broadband infrastructure developments that will enable the sector to deliver. But Government alone cannot provide the service required, nor will the private sector. The way forward is partnership. "The government has co-invested with industry in the rollout of DSL, broadband wireless, hybrid fibre cable networks, satellite broadband and the Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) programme, and we will continue to do our broadband business in this way. "

"Investment in these future proof MANs is essential if we are to attract high end, digitally intensive industry to our country. "It is also essential as the demand for bandwidth grows in all sectors. Ireland cannot turn up at international inward investment opportunities with a broadband offer of 512 kilobits DSL at 50:1 contention ratios. That is akin to Eddie Jordan turning up at Monza with a wheelbarrow", he adds.

In this context he lays down a challenge for the industry. "Forget about 100,000 broadband subscribers as a target - forget about 200,000. I want to see an industry target of 500,000 broadband subscribers achieved by the end of 2006 - that's 35% of the customer base - if industry PR is accurate that must be a realisable challenge", he says.

The first phase of the Department of Communications' Broadband Rollout Programme is now almost completed. Investment of almost €80m over the past two years, in association with the local authorities, has provided 26 towns and cities with high-speed, high-capacity infrastructure, independently managed for the State on an open-access basis. Phases II and III of the Programme will see investment in broadband networks in over 90 additional towns with a population of 1,500 and more, under a three-year programme with a dedicated budget of almost €100m.

The Group Broadband Scheme offers funding assistance for smaller towns and rural communities to pool their needs and obtain broadband connectivity in association with the industry. The Group Broadband Scheme has its own separate budget of €25m, and will see up to 150 smaller communities obtaining broadband connectivity. "While the industry was slow to get the message initially all the signs are that the realisation is there that we need to get the infrastructure rolled out as fast as possible and real progress is now being made", he concludes. "I am very hopeful that between government and the industry we will meet the target of having broadband available to everyone who wants or needs it within the next three years.

spongebob

damien.m wrote:

Challenging industry in a magazine and giving them an extra year before they reach this challenge

He challenged the teachers by sending his inspectors out to make sure the schools were open on the 22nd of december one year. All he did was get their backs up . That , amongst myriad other reasons, was why he HAD to be moved out of education and why Hanafin was sent in to chill things. She scrapped Dempseys league tables plan for schools in a very very telling way last month so its not like he left a legacy to build on in that Dept or so it seems. At that point I felt a great sadness !

He would have been moved clean out of the cabinet had FF not won 3 seats out of 5 in Meath in 2002 .

I have no hope that Dempsey will change anything through insightful policy making or because of the universal respect for his talents that he has built up through his previous ministeries or because of his clear identification and prioritisation of issues that need immediate action and because of his unnerring instinct to find a way to implement the necessary policy in a timely and balanced way with regard to the interests of all the stakeholders .

In short.....I have no hope for Dempsey or for his department while he is there . His minister of state is not cabinet material and never will be ....and is too fond of the Fish bit anyway being a Donegal TD with Killybegs in his constituency .

Thats that then till the next election/reshuffle. Drat ! . I'd bet that McRedmond will clear a few pairgains off a coupla FF'ers lines in Athboy and that Dempsey will pat himself on the back and reckon he is doing a great job and that McRedmond respects him. I'm damn sure that Dempsey will not get a mention in the Eircom SEC filings under the 'uncertainties ' heading.

M

Ronan|Raven

More ministerial hot air and guff imho. It would be nice to see some creative action instead of the same old words we have being hearing for so long now from different people in that position.

Fallschirmjager

god ...just reread this after a long break away and i see we are still hearing the same...

still i suoppose it a start...just

anyroad wont matter will be moving to sweden next year...HELLO WEB!