There is a "very serious" risk that the Republic will fall behind its global competitors unless it does more to drive the supply and uptake of broadband technologies, a new report has found.
Ireland's broadband future - a report published yesterday by the Information Society Commission - concludes there is market failure in the broadband sector, whereby telecoms firms are not meeting current demand for high-speed internet services.
This failure by the market to meet the demand for broadband has created a spatial digital divide, whereby regional areas are not benefiting from high-speed internet services. This is having adverse consequences for business and national competitiveness, says the report, which was published on the day that the Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, announced €140 million new funding for broadband.
Despite the funding announcement however, the Information Society Commission yesterday called on the Government to do more to roll out broadband.
Similarly, Fine Gael's communications spokesman, Mr Simon Coveney, said the Government's plan to fund broadband in 80 towns remained inadequate.
The Information Society Commission's report underlines the huge potential benefits that could be delivered by rolling out broadband in the Republic.
It estimates more than 85,000 jobs could be created in various industry sectors over the next 10 years if broadband is adopted by the public and companies. A conservative valuation of this extra employment is €850 million per year. It recommends the Government intervene further to address this broadband deficit by devising a new action plan.
This should seek to stimulate competition between different network platforms, cut the cost of broadband and set up the management entity that will co-ordinate networks built by the State.
Otherwise, the Government will not meet its target of achieving 12 per cent broadband penetration by March 2005.
The report notes the Republic is ranked 14th out of 15 EU states in terms of the uptake of broadband lines per capita. It concludes that there is a lack of network-based competition in the Republic between telecoms firms, cable TV and satellite broadband providers. This had reduced the imperative on Eircom, the fixed-line incumbent in the Republic, to drive consumers to take up DSL services.
Broadband availability in some regional areas is inadequate and the report highlights case studies in which firms are suffering because they cannot access adequate low-cost broadband. This shows the availability of services points to "market failure in broadband - so that supply is failing to meet actual and latent demand", according to the report.
