Sunday Times Opinion piece (6/2/2005)

bealtine

February 06, 2005

Personal View: Internet future is in their hands

THIS year could prove to be a historic one for the Irish telecommunications industry, the year when all those who want a broadband connection will finally get one.

Given the record to date, that might sound like an impossible dream but it is not. In Northern Ireland almost 100% of the population now has broadband available on demand.

Instead of treating broadband as a luxury product, it needs to be recognised for what it is — a utility. As an essential service it needs to be universally supplied. The government and the telecommunication companies need to work in partnership. If they can jointly plan our broadband future then Ireland will become a broadband leader.

Consideration must be given to the needs of consumers from all demographic sectors: the elderly, people with disabilities, homemakers, the unemployed, the farming community and the housebound. These groups must have the opportunity to participate in this new “always-on” Irish community.

Despite the fact that the republic lies second last in the European broadband league, two key people (Noel Dempsey, the communications minister, and Isolde Goggin, the ComReg chairman) and two key decisions can bring about a situation of “broadband for all”.

Both Dempsey and Goggin are relatively new in their positions and both can drive implementation of policy in their respective organisations.

As chairman of ComReg, the telecommunications regulator, Goggin has a lot of work to do. The regulator was formed in 1997 to transform a stagnant market. Clearly this has not happened.

ComReg needs to stimulate competition in a broadband market still dominated by Eircom, which is accustomed to moving at its own pace.

ComReg needs to get tougher with those who are holding up broadband competition. The regulator can no longer buckle under every threat of High Court action.

Ofcom, the British equivalent to ComReg, has used the threat of splitting BT to force the former monopoly to deliver the service to 99.8% of the population.

If ComReg fails to drive the broadband roll-out then Dempsey needs to follow the example of his predecessor and intervene by issuing an appropriate directive.

Dempsey has taken over a department that has a genuine passion for innovation. In the past the government has acted decisively to position Ireland at the forefront

of the technology revolution. The time has now come for the department to catapult Ireland to the forefront of the broadband revolution. As a priority Dempsey should immediately implement the Oireachtas communications committee’s two key recommendations.

These involve “bridging the first mile” (for example, the mile from a person’s house to the local exchange) and developing a nationwide broadband infrastructure plan.

We have international connectivity, we have national backbones and we have fibre rings. The focus of the plan must be on joining up all these dots and bridging that key mile-long gap.

Two people, strongly leading their respective areas, have the capacity to deliver our broadband revolution and bring us into the era where the technology can be used by all. Are they up to the challenge?

Damien Mulley, chairman of Ireland Offline

mike65

G'wan Damien! God, IOFFL is everywhere these days.

Mike.

lucernarian

Wow :eek: . I was honestly shocked when I saw the name at the bottom of the opinion piece. I wasn't expecting Irelandoffline itself to appear in the opinion column of the Sunday Times. That piece was brilliant as there was little complaining - only constructive and optimistic comments. That is the image that Irelandoffline needs - a group that is constructive and presents solutions to problems which affect every person in Ireland today.

Well done Damien

jwt

Indeed, well done to Damien and JDH for writing an excellent and considered piece. They overcame the obvious temptations and wrote an informative and constructive opinion.

And also well done to the Sunday Times for offering us the opportunity to write an opinion piece. Hopefully others will follow suit.


John

Praetorian

Well done Damien, excellent piece! Enjoy your skiing in Andorra

Dangger

Fantastic piece guys!

Tom Dunne

I certainly wasn't expecting that name at the end of the piece. Then again, it was enlightened, informed and level headed - it couldn't have come from a technology journalist.

Nice one!

damien

Thank you all. Just back from a holiday. My god last week was a busy one in the telco environment.