Ireland is worst in whole of EU for home broadband

mumhaabu

www.herald.ie wrote:

Ireland is worst in whole of EU for home broadband

By Michael Lavery

Thursday December 11 2008

WE ALWAYS suspected it, but now it's been confirmed: Irish home broadband usage is now officially the lowest in Europe, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Ireland still lags behind the rest of the 27 countries in the EU, although 43pc of Irish households now have a broadband connection compared with 7pc in 2005.
Last January, the EU 27 average was 48pc -- 5pc more than Ireland in the first quarter of the year.
Par
Ireland's 43pc ranking placed it on a par with Lithuania and 3pc more than Latvia. It was 31pc lower than the Netherlands and Denmark.
Of the original 15 EU countries, Ireland has the fourth worst household broadband usage, according to the CSO's Information Society statistics.
The figures show that 70pc of Irish households that had at least one member aged 16-74 had a home computer. This compared with 55pc in 2005.
Nearly nine of every 10 of the households had their computer connected to the internet, compared with 82pc in 2005.
Three years ago -- when 7pc of Irish homes had broadband -- 39pc of households connected via modem or ISDN. Now, just 19pc are using the slower connection.
But companies have moved ahead fast into the internet age, the figures also show.
Almost 100pc of companies employing more than 10 people now have internet access, and 83pc of those have broadband access -- a major increase on the 61pc who used broadband in 2006.
Population
Most new companies that are deciding to locate in Ireland, position themselves in, or near, major population centres, where the Government's broadband programme has reached.
But concerns remain about the roll out of the plan to make broadband available on a nationwide basis.
The National Broadband Scheme aims to ensure that, by early 2010, the faster broadband service is provided in all areas of the country which do not now have a service.
- Michael Lavery

Well at least it is official, now I guess the "Ministry of truth" themselves at ComReg must be gone into overdrive to debunk these latest figures, what will the classify as Broadband next - ISDN? One wonders.

I think the awarding of the NBS to Three was a defining moment in the history of Irish telecommunications which shows the total disregard this Government holds for the entire sector and IT, Learning and Modernity in general. You have to admire the diligent work done by the men and women of the small Irish ISP's that dot the countryside, while dealing with the ineptness of ComReg and the Irish government who has made what should a golden marketplace into amongst the toughest and worst areas to compete in Europe. There is no tax breaks or subsides like there is given to any thing with the words "bio" or "green" attached. We are firmly in the grips of an economic disaster yet I believe that if we were a true knowledge economy we could have fared better. We are now the worst in Europe, yet Europe does nothing either.

If ever Irelandoffline were needed it is now, the sooner we reform and get back bringing the issue back into the limelight and by latching onto other issues it will help rise the issue faster. If we point out the lack of Broadband with higher Enviornemental damage or couple it with opposition or support for the Lisbon treaty then it would help the cause. e.g.. If the EU was to bring in a Pan-European regulator that would regulate the regulators and see to it the market is truly open to survival of the fittest and do away with the endless dribble spewed by ComReg and get some real facts like these published by the CSO out there.

We will remain firmly rooted in this "worst" position I suspect for a very long time. It is a farcical situation to be in and as a direct result of this government, jobs are being lost and we are now amongst the most uncompetitive economies in the world, even the low corporation tax has lost the wow factor and is being copied in several other countries. It was like how the Shannon Free Zone was started in 1959 a world first likewise with the Duty Free in Shannon Airport, both were leading ideas at the time but were copied and like Ireland's Telecom's Infrastructure of the 1980's (which was bad by modern standards and an total monopoly) however by International standards it was far ahead of what similar basket case countries of the time had, it was at par with the UK which saw infrastructure suffer heavily post-privatisation in the 80's. However from the leader of Europe like our economy it has since nosedived, and like Shannon airport it will soon be a ghost town.

Would the last person to leave please turn off the lights.