Forfas: Broadband Investment in Ireland. Review of Progress and Policy Requirements

SkepticOne

http://www.forfas.ie/publications/bband02/Broadband02.pdf

Some interesting stuff in this. PDF format unfortunately.

timod

This is a great report. I'm impressed.

It reads almost as if it was written by IOFFL. What's even more impressive is that it is from a government body.

Do Forfas have any real influence however?

Tim

timod

BTW, here's a brief summary of the report...

(taken from: http://www.forfas.ie/newsasp/show.asp?page_id=239 )


The review identifies a number of specific actions that could be taken to improve the investment environment for broadband in Ireland. These include:

· Initiate Debate on the Eircom Network becoming a Wholesale Network Accessible to all Telecoms Operators: Eircom and the telecommunications industry should debate the merits of separating Eircom's network business from its retail business, allowing the Eircom network to become a wholesale network accessible, on identical terms, to all operators. This would reduce concerns in the market in relation to the effectiveness of provision of open access to eircom's network to other operators as required under EU Directives.

If Eircom were to voluntarily separate its retail and network businesses into two companies, one providing infrastructure to all players in the market and the other offering retail services using that infrastructure, it is likely that a more genuinely competitive market for access to telecommunications infrastructure could develop. For Eircom, this would potentially free the retail side of its business from much of the current regulatory scrutiny.

· Provide Flat-rate Internet Access: To allow other operators and service providers to offer always-on access to the Internet to customers who are paying a flat fee for the service, a flat rate interconnection product for narrowband access should be introduced as quickly as possible. Such interconnection should be available for basic telephony and ISDN services.

· Communications Regulation Bill to be Passed as Priority: The Communications Regulation Bill 2002 requires to be prioritised for passage through the Oireachtas during the current term. The Bill requires to be amended to give the regulator powers to impose a flat rate interconnection product on Eircom, to ensure that the regulator has sufficient powers to levy meaningful fines for non-compliance and to provide for an efficient appeals mechanism to decisions of the regulator.

· Eircom to Provide Licensed Programming Services: The current restriction whereby Eircom is forbidden to deliver licensed programming services over its own network should be removed in order to increase competition.

· Regulate for Lower DSL Wholesale Prices: The regulator should continue to seek to get the price of DSL prices down to a point at which these wholesale prices reflect the cost of an efficient operator.

· Harmonise Regulations for Infrastructure Deployment: The rules governing deployment of infrastructure vary according to the planning authority an operator is dealing with. These rules should be harmonised through the introduction of planning regulations.

· Encourage Pro-active Role by Local Authorities in the Provision of Telecom Infrastructure: Local authorities should be encouraged to facilitate the provision of telecoms infrastructures and to deploy their own open access infrastructures - especially ducting and should pro-actively encourage bundling with other infrastructure developments.

· Investigate Leased Line Provision: The regulator should investigate the price and timeliness of delivery of local leased lines by Eircom to other operators, to ensure prices are cost-oriented and the quality of the provision is in line with international best practice.

· Develop Ireland's Internet Exchange: A significant increase in the scale and sophistication of Ireland's facilities for the exchange of Internet traffic and sharing of telecommunications capacity or 'peering' is required if Ireland is to develop as a leading European location for e-commerce and e-business activities. The range of Internet peering opportunities in Ireland is limited due to the absence of leading international telecommunications operators and service providers. The Irish Neutral Internet Exchange (INEX) should strive to attract additional international Internet service providers and communications operators from Europe to have a presence here.

Major Role for State in Addressing Broadband Gap
"There is a major role for the State in ensuring that efficient broadband infrastructure and services are widely available by encouraging and facilitating competitive private sector investment and through its own initiatives in the case of market failures", said Travers. "The ultimate delivery of the infrastructures and services needed, will be either by private sector investment programmes, interventions by the State or by public and private partnerships. It is likely that if competitive broadband infrastructures and services are to be widely available in Ireland, a combination of all three of these implementation mechanisms will be required".

sceptre

Good report - well worth reading.

stormkeeper

Provide Flat-rate Internet Access: To allow other operators and service providers to offer always-on access to the Internet to customers who are paying a flat fee for the service, a flat rate interconnection product for narrowband access should be introduced as quickly as possible. Such interconnection should be available for basic telephony and ISDN services.

If this was to happen, I might consider getting ISDN a bit more, but I'd probably prefer ADSL as it would be similar, but a fair bit faster, albeit a fair bit more expensive. Still though, ISDN is still better than 56k dialup.