Rapid broadband growth continues in NI

bealtine

I dont remember if this was posted or not so here goes anyway.
It is somewhat relevant to the "culchees just dont want broadband" spoof/excuse thats being pumped out in the media.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single6565

Rapid broadband growth continues in NI


08.06.2006 - Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Maria Eagle said yesterday that Northern Ireland consumers are adopting broadband at some of the fastest rates across the UK and numbers are approaching a quarter of a million. By comparison, there are approximately 330,000 broadband subscribers in the Republic of Ireland.
“Estimates made by my department suggest that the number of broadband accounts across Northern Ireland is approaching a quarter of a million,” Eagle said. “Over the past six months, consumers have been adopting it at the fastest rates in the UK. Furthermore in the past two years the number of accounts has risen from some 60,000 in 2004 to today's levels of approximately 230,000.”

Since the announcement in January that broadband is available to 100pc of the population of Northern Ireland, the region is leading the way in adopting broadband. Some 59pc of households access the internet and of those who do access it from home 57pc have broadband.

Minister Eagle continued: "Other work also indicates that the number of broadband connections in Northern Ireland is comparable with regions such as Scotland and Wales, although we still come in behind regions such as London and the South East.

“It is clear that people in Northern Ireland see benefits in having broadband both in business and at home, and I would urge those who are considering getting broadband to act soon. Government, along with the EU under the Building Sustainable Prosperity Programme, has invested to ensure anyone in Northern Ireland who wants a broadband service can get it. This makes the region unique in Europe if not the world.”

The Minister urged those who already have a broadband connection to focus on how this can be used as a tool to put them at the centre of a new online economy.

She said: “A broadband connection allows businesses to exploit online opportunities in a competitive global marketplace. There are many openings for entrepreneurs to develop products and services, selling to niche markets here, and throughout Ireland, Britain, Europe and across the world.”

By John Kennedy

Sponge Bob

bealtine wrote:

I dont remember if this was posted or not so here goes anyway.
It is somewhat relevant to the "culchees just dont want broadband" spoof/excuse thats being pumped out in the media.

There seems to be a concerted campaign uder way to knobble the GBS program (more anon:) and to kill off all funding initiatives.

I could even go as far as to say that certain eircom staff are deliberately briefing against M. Danon or else M. Danon has had a eureka moment about the state of the 'network' and is briefing against M. Danon.

A ce moment on ne sait pas

Some 59pc of households access the internet and of those who do access it from home 57pc have broadband.

I had intended to analyse this 59% figure to contrast it to the 44% figure here but had some difficulty in acquiring the key statistic, namely PC ownership. My main problem is disaggregating the UK national figures to find the NI regional figure. My othe rmain problem is comparing samples of a decent size.

PC ownership comes from the Household Budget survey in the CSO . I have predicted this with some accuracy in the past I am happey to tell yiz . Comreg, meanwhile, send out consultants to ask about Internet use but off a smaller sample size and the sample ruthlessly excludes Immigrants and Irish speakers I have been told !

I DO know that the difference in PC ownership by total households between the UK and Ireland is NOT THAT LARGE. See these example .



and from the BEEB quoting the same basic sources




Simply put the differences in PC ownership do not account for the dismal BB penetration rates here. Therefore other factors must be in play such as the state of the lines and the shocking line rental and general availability and high cost here compared to the UK .
The problem is that an unholy alliance of Eircom and Comreg and DCMNR are conspiring to mask this failure and to focus on lack of PCs instead where there is no substantial lack of PCs . The gap is actually quite small, the UK may have 15% more households with PCs or so but thats all . They hit 50% ownership in 2002 and we hit the same level about 2004

The last published household survey for Ireland was to June 2004 while the UK one was a year earlier and the root can be found here while a similar survey on computers can be found here .

I must analyse like for like once I do some more research. The household survey seems to imply a much higher PC ownership rate than here while the other survey with a smaller sample size implies a similar ownership rate.

In the three months prior to interview, 63 per cent of adults in Great Britain (29 million) had accessed the Internet in February 2006. This represents 93 per cent of the adults who have ever accessed the Internet.

The most common place to access the Internet was at home (86 per cent), 46 per cent accessed at work, 28 per cent at another person's home, 16 per cent at a place of education and 10 per cent at a public library.

another figure (from 5 years ago) indicated that pretty well everybody in the UK with a computer accesses the Internet . Less than 10% of those with a computer did not as you can see.



86% of 63% (in Feb 2006) implies that at least 54% of all UK households have a PC which is about where we are too ....our 2006 census will return a figure in the range 55% - 57% .

More data here but I need regional breakdowns not just UK national stats.

If someone can point me to relevant UK stats including regional breakdowns I would be well happy I would and can crunch the figures properly with heavy linkees to my historic predictions and to source material.