Information Society - Government broadband target will not be reached

damien

Talk about good timing:
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news4a.nv?storyid=single4075

16.11.2004 - With only 100,000 broadband subscribers, Ireland has a broadband penetration of roughly one-fifth the average level of competitor countries, according to a new 21st Century Infrastructure policy statement from the Information Society Commission (ISC). Despite moving up one notch from 19th to 18th position out of 21 countries in an OECD report, the ISC warns that there is no room for complacency in resolving this prevailing issue.
In a bold statement this morning, the commission warned that the Government’s target to be within the top 10 of OECD countries for broadband services by mid-2005 will not be reached and urged Government to restate its position towards a more feasible objective.

The ISC’s spokesperon Dr Pat O’Hara said that if the Government’s target were to be reach it would mean having 5Mb per second broadband to the home and substantially higher rates of business users, but argued this would not happen unless there was regular benchmarking of progress and an alliance among all players to speedily attack barriers to adoption.

In a sort of call to arms for Government, the ISC has highlighted five priority areas where it believes stronger broadband engagement by Government could help significantly make some progress on the enduring issue.

It indicated that ambitious broadband targets – such as Communications Minister Noel Dempsey’s 400,000 broadband subscriber challenge to industry – should be supported by a coherent strategy, a responsive regulatory environment and a clear focus on driving market growth through competition through technology platforms, such as wireless and fixed line broadband.

The ISC also pointed to the Government’s Spatial Strategy and warned that that the digital divide being caused by difference in availability, quality and cost of broadband services must be addressed, bolstered by a concerted effort to ensure effective broadband roll-out to smaller towns and rural areas.

Government itself, the ISC recommends, could be a key adopter of broadband by ensuring public sector demand for sophisticated broadband services which in turn would enable better quality public services and drive market development.

The ISC also called for considerable benchmarking or ongoing measurement of progress against international progress in the area.

The establishment of an independent Broadband Delivery Group was also called for by the ISC with the aim of bringing all the key broadband stakeholders together, ensuring shared commitment to key objectives and swiftly attacking any barriers to the adoption of broadband in Ireland.

“The Commission urges Government to restate its commitment to seeing Ireland within the top decile of OECD countries for broadband. This means widespread availability of service speeds of 5mb/s to the home, and substantially higher for business users”, said Dr O’Hara.

“We need clear targets and regular monitoring of Ireland’s progress. While we welcome the growth in DSL subscriptions, the ISC is concerned about the limited availability of these services outside of larger centres. We also worry about whether this technology can deliver sufficient capacity over the longer term.

“It is crucially important that we maintain investment in a variety of broadband options, both to maximise competition, and to avoid over-dependence on any one technology platform. Stronger measures will also be needed to support the objectives of the Group Broadband Scheme in ensuring availability of broadband services to smaller towns and rural areas,” Dr O’Hara said.

By John Kennedy

eircomtribunal

Two remarks on this timely statement by Patricia O'Hara:

It indicated that ambitious broadband targets – such as Communications Minister Noel Dempsey’s 400,000 broadband subscriber challenge to industry – should be supported by a coherent strategy, a responsive regulatory environment and a clear focus on driving market growth through competition through technology platforms, such as wireless and fixed line broadband

Very valid point about the uselessness of such ministerial target proclamations, which are simply smoke screens.
Still annoying that Dempsey's lowering of the broadband target – 400 000 by end 2006 is less than the modest DCMNR March 2004 policy directive goal set for ComReg of reaching at least the average EU-15 bb usage and availability by mid 2005 – is named an ambitious broadband target. (It is not in the official Information Society report though, only in the siliconrepublic article)



In a bold statement this morning, the commission warned that the Government’s target to be within the top 10 of OECD countries for broadband services by mid-2005 will not be reached and urged Government to restate its position towards a more feasible objective.

I falsely assumed (caused by some wreckless statement here on boards – who was it? ) that the top "decile" meant within the top 10 percent of OECD countries, ie within the first three, as there are nearly 30 OECD countries. Looking up the term, I see, that it means nothing else but "within the first ten."

P.