A plan to develop a free wireless internet service (Wi-Fi) in Dublin has been cancelled because of a number of "major impacts" on proposals, Dublin City Council said last night.
The proposed service would have enabled people across the city to access the internet and was seen as an ideal way to bridge the digital divide.
In November 2006, following calls to establish the service, the city council established the Wi-Fi Working Group to examine and report on the potential implementation of free Wi-Fi access.
A spokesman for the council last night said circumstances had changed while the report was being made because of "two major impacts".
"An EU ruling on state aid was issued in May 2007, putting severe limits on the involvement of government in the supply of broadband."
He also said that "the economic model for citywide Wi-Fi was internationally reviewed" following the withdrawal and scaling down of free Wi-Fi services in "many US cities".
The council has instead recommended that wireless technology be made available at all appropriate city council locations, such as libraries and City Hall, over the next two years.
It has also called for a "developing a digital Dublin project" to address digital exclusion and development of standards for business and area groups to establish the use of Wi-Fi at their locations.
Labour TD Tommy Broughan described the decision to abandon the proposal as "very disappointing".
He accused the Dublin city manager, John Tierney, and the Minister for Communications of "surrendering to vested corporate interests" by scrapping a plan.
"There have been suggestions that opposition from the Department of Communications and from some other vested interest groups may have stymied the development of low-cost municipal Wi-Fi services," Mr Broughan said.
Fine Gael councillor Naoise Ó Muirí, who sat on the Wi-Fi working group, said Mr Broughan was "totally incorrect" in his views and he was simply taking "a cheap shot" at the city manager.
"A similar public access scheme to what was initially proposed in Philadelphia is described as 'successful' - however, the reality is far different.
"In 18 months, a mere 613 digital-inclusion customers have signed up for the service within a city of over 1.5 million people," the councillor said.
Mr Ó Muirí said Mr Broughan would be "among the first" people to complain if this happened in Dublin and that a "sensible approach" in terms of cost and continuity was instead being taken by the council.
