One in five Irish firms with Net connection do not understand what broadband is (IDC Ireland).
Two in five small and medium-sized enterprises couldn't get an upgrade to their Net connection due to cost or lack of availability (Chambers of Commerce Ireland).
The World Economic Forum ranked the Republic second last of 16 countries for broadband penetration; downgraded the State to 30th globally in competitiveness (from 23rd the year before), largely due to inadequate technical infrastructure; and ranked it 97th out of 102 for competitiveness in the ISP sector.
European consultancy DotEcon said the Government was "wildly optimistic" in its pledge to increase Irish broadband usage to within the top 10 OECD countries, predicting a broadband penetration rate of 7 per cent by 2007, compared with a western European average of 16 per cent.
Jupiter Research placed current Irish broadband penetration at 1 per cent against a European average of 7 per cent.
The World Competitiveness Yearbook gave the Republic the worst marks across 29 small countries for the speed, cost and availability of internet access.
