Ireland must improve net access to beat e-govt lag

bealtine

Ireland must improve net access to beat e-govt lag

25.02.2005 - Ireland needs to increase the rate of public access to the internet and particularly to broadband if it is to improve its position relative to other European nations adopting e-government, IDC has said.
In a recent survey IDC ranked 15 Western European countries on e-government on two key factors: readiness and sophistication of services. One of the measures for a high readiness rating is internet access, as this is essential for ensuring the population is equipped to transact with public services via the web and similar channels.

The findings were revealed at yesterday's e-government conference hosted by IDC in Dublin. The analyst firm concluded that the demand side is well catered for, as Ireland has several major government-to-citizen and government-to-business services now online. However, general internet access here is low relative to the leading European countries and the broadband situation is worse.

According to IDC data, approximately half of the country is online, calculated on internet users as a percentage of population. (Other estimates have put this level well below 50pc, however.) By contrast Sweden and Denmark, who topped the IDC e-government survey, have internet usage levels of 79pc and 72pc respectively.

Moreover, Ireland is second last out of 15 countries for broadband adoption among citizens - only Greece rated lower. Ireland was in the same position for business take-up of broadband, a factor IDC consulting director Duncan Brown said was of more concern. Speaking at the conference he said: "It's maybe an indication that Irish businesses don't understand the benefits of e-government because if they understood its value, they would more readily adopt broadband."

Afterwards Brown said that lower costs would improve the current broadband situation. "Just by cutting price, you dramatically up the rate of adoption. You have to make it cheap. At the moment, it's not seen as an essential service such as the telephone is."

He pointed out that the broadband market in the UK has only really become competitive over the past 12 months or so. "The tipping point hasn't reached Ireland yet, but it's inevitable," he told siliconrepublic.com. "Eircom can delay it but they can't stop it." Brown added that the Government and the telecoms regulator have roles to play in improving Ireland's position in terms of readiness for e-government.

He said there were "no major holes" in the extent, quality and innovation of Irish e-government services now available. It is not important to have slick websites or use leading-edge technology for its own sake, he added. "There's always the temptation to look for the things that are cool, but it's best to keep it simple, practical and pragmatic. Tax returns aren't particularly sexy, but they are essential."

Brown emphasised that sophisticated e-government services were only part of the picture. "It's not enough to provide them, it's about how accessible they are ... The issue for Ireland is in the readiness factor, particularly in relation to broadband."

He urged the Government to pay closer attention to usage levels for online public services in the future. "The big question our research doesn't answer is, how many people are actually using this stuff. There is a need to measure who's using it and what they're using it for. Unless you're doing that, what's the point? You have to ask: are people getting the benefit of it?"

Later in the conference, IDC consultant John Gilsenan drew comparisons between Ireland and Denmark; the two countries are quite similar in size and population but Denmark is at the forefront of e-government adoption. Every year Denmark publishes an action plan outlining its vision and strategy for e-government. Having been a leader in e-government traditionally, the country has been less influenced by EU initiatives in this area. Denmark's ambitious targets for the end of 2006 are for 60pc of citizens and 95pc of businesses to use e-government services. "Direct comparisons are difficult; Denmark was early to use IT in the public sector so e-government followed on naturally," Gilsenan said. "There was also high internet usage from the beginning, so supply and demand dovetailed."

According to Gilsenan, many of the reasons for Denmark's leading position are historical and cultural, he said, and therefore can't be easily repeated. By being an early adopter, Denmark is actually now facing some integration problems with its IT systems.

Encouragingly, Ireland does not rank far behind Denmark in the level of sophistication of online services, Gilsenan added. "Readiness of the country is what we now need to focus on. We're way behind. PC usage and internet access must increase, otherwise all the good work that's being done to provide services to citizens will not succeed," he concluded

By Gordon Smith

AndrewMc

bealtine wrote:

Moreover, Ireland is second last out of 15 countries for broadband adoption among citizens - only Greece rated lower. Ireland was in the same position for business take-up of broadband, a factor IDC consulting director Duncan Brown said was of more concern. Speaking at the conference he said: "It's maybe an indication that Irish businesses don't understand the benefits of e-government because if they understood its value, they would more readily adopt broadband."

Afterwards Brown said that lower costs would improve the current broadband situation. "Just by cutting price, you dramatically up the rate of adoption. You have to make it cheap. At the moment, it's not seen as an essential service such as the telephone is."

Is it just me in my pre-coffee early-morning stage , or have they somewhat missed the point? They talk about high costs, and that somehow we're all, home and businesses alike, just not seeing the potential of broadband. However I don't see them refer to availability at all. There's a lot of us just can't get broadband. A quick google shows Duncan Brown to be from the UK - could he have possibly not considered that a "modern" EU country would have the mess we do?

eircomtribunal

AndrewMc wrote:

Is it just me in my pre-coffee early-morning stage ,

I'd say its is.

Think they drew more or less the right conclusions and Gordon made a noteworthy article about it: In short, Ireland's failure to have its population online is a fundamental let-down for all the costly e-gov efforts.

P.

Cork

Ireland needs to increase the rate of public access to the internet

How?

Should more PCs be put into libarys?

Should we try and improve computer litracy?

This is a massive question - what should be done to increase the rate of public access to the internet?

Urban Weigl

Cork wrote:

How?
Should more PCs be put into libarys?
Should we try and improve computer litracy?
This is a massive question - what should be done to increase the rate of public access to the internet?

No amount of PC's in libraries and computer literacy training will help when people simply cannot get broadband (I won't go into reasons, as I think we all know them by now). And when they can, they have to pay through the nose for inferior service, at a time when ~8mbps is fast becoming the standard across Europe.

Ireland is currently second last in the EU-15 (only Greece is worse) regarding broadband takeup, and 27 out of 30 countries in the OECD on broadband prices. The low takeup is not down to education. Ireland has a good education system, people tend to not be scared of technology on the a whole, and we are english speaking. The problem we have now is caused by years and years where dialup access was so expensive, most people could not either afford or justify using it, so even though limited flatrate is now available, it is too late. And today, many people cannot even get access to the most basic of broadband services. And when they can, the prices are high. And to top it all off, we have the highest line rental in Europe.

Cork

Urban Weigl wrote:

And today, many people cannot even get access to the most basic of broadband services. And when they can, the prices are high. And to top it all off, we have the highest line rental in Europe.

Many people have even ditched landlines preferring to pay large bills on prepay phones.

Many probably will never get a computer and will be left behand with regards to egovernment.

Should state offoces then be used as one stop stops for the provision of the internet?

Many may not have sufficent IT skills to use internet cafes.

Urban Weigl

Cork wrote:

Many people have even ditched landlines preferring to pay large bills on prepay phones.

A mobile phone is a given today, so it isn't people ditching landlines for mobiles, it's people considering why they should also pay €25 line rental on top of their other communications costs. Not to mention that if you add basic broadband service to your line rental, the total comes to €65 -- and that is before using it to make a single phone call!

Many probably will never get a computer and will be left behand with regards to egovernment.
Should state offoces then be used as one stop stops for the provision of the internet?
Many may not have sufficent IT skills to use internet cafes.

So you believe Irish people have less IT skills than our European neighbours? If anything, in my experience Irish people are more open to technology.

As far as computer ownership being low here, one of the main reasons to get a computer is because of the Internet. And the Internet does not work in Ireland (availability issues, slow speeds, almost the most expensive in the world, etc etc).

Cork

Urban Weigl wrote:

As far as computer ownership being low here, one of the main reasons to get a computer is because of the Internet. And the Internet does not work in Ireland (availability issues, slow speeds, almost the most expensive in the world, etc etc).

People don't get computers to cojure up spreadsheets.

It really is the net.

But the government should also allow a vat rebate for consumers.

The government levy on credit cards is also no help.

De Rebel

The Irish have over the last 30 years proved adept at successfully and profitably adopting new technologies. And this goes for business as well as consumers. In my experience, Irish business adopts new technologies faster and more successfully than any other country in Europe. And I've been involved in technology implementations in many west European countries.

The problem is not on the demand side. Slow adoption is not because Irish businessmen and women are reluctant to adopt new technology which enables them to reduce costs, it is not because they cannot see an opportunity to profitably adopt a useful technology which enables them to increase profits; far from it, no better body of people to grab an opportunity for advancement by the balls and go for it.

The problem is on the supply side. Broadband is not being supplied. Broadband is not being made available. Broadband is not sufficiently affordable. Simple as that.

And there are two culprits. Eircom have us by the neck, because through Dame O'Rourke's stupidity, they have our core infrastructure in their back packets. They are throttling broadband rollout to the sole benefit of their shareholders. Take a bow Mary, I hope the bathwater in Athlone is tepid. The other culprit is Noel Dempsey. He needs to read and digest the Noel O'Flynn's excellent Broadband report, and act on it. Now. There is no excuse for him, Dempsey has the intellect and the vision to understand what O'Flynn's report is talking about. Dempsey needs to remove his finger from wherever it is being stored and put it on the button that says “Broadband for All”

That’s all there is to it.