Noel Dempsey Speech at ComReg Annual Conference

damien

This is Noel Dempsey's speech at todays ComReg Annual Conference which IrelandOffline didn't get to go to. This would be the 2nd year in a row now that IrelandOffline didn't get invited despite guarantees from Etain last year that we would not be forgotten.

We also missed EircomTribunal's fav regulator - The Great Dane giving a talk about regulating and transparency. I bet he would have invited us.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I am delighted, as new Minister for Communications, to be here today to launch ComReg’s National Conference and Consumer Web Site. I welcome this opportunity to meet some of the major players in the industry. As I’m sure you’ll appreciate, I am currently in listening mode but I look forward to being at the centre of such a fast-paced and exciting sector. I am genuinely interested in technology - not just in what makes it tick but how it can be used to enhance economic and social development. In my former role as Minister for Education & Science, and from my involvement in the Broadband for Schools and ICT in Schools Programmes, I can see the huge transformational power of technology if we use it properly. I believe that technology and the Internet have huge value as educational tools if we integrate them fully into the curriculum not if we just provide PCs to schools.

Recognising that the future of learning is so intricately tied up with the use of the world wide web, my current Department, together with my former Department of Education and Science and the Telecommunications and Internet Federation of IBEC, have put together a joint project to deliver free broadband connectivity to each one of the 4,200 schools in the country by the start of the 2005 school year. This programme is already underway.

In addition to the €18 million already committed for this project, additional resources will be made available for software developments and training. And the key issue is that this will be delivered at no cost to the schools themselves.

Students who become familiar with the web at school will then ask to have broadband at home and will go on to become the knowledge generation that will ensure the continuing prosperity of this country in the Knowledge Society. But I also see huge possibilities for the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in social development – in dealing with social disadvantage, social inclusion and others on the periphery for example, the disabled. Technology has the power to change the pedagogy with which my generation has grown up – providing student centred, experimental learning. It also has the ability to mediate between disabled people and broader society by providing new outlets for people to communicate, to learn and to share experiences. We have seen the dramatic benefits for cerebral palsy users or deaf people from using technology effectively. I have seen the statistics that point to the fact that we are one of the biggest users of text messaging in the world – over 4 billion messages this year alone. Why does the industry not offer to provide free text messaging for deaf people – to help make these people feel more included in society. It would not cost a lot but would make a huge difference. This is an issue I will return to in the coming weeks.

Returning to Broadband, let me say that I no longer see it an optional extra. The Government regards it as an essential tool of industry, commerce, education, health care and social inclusion. It is essential to the future of the country.

Ireland is at a key juncture of its economic development. Future economic development and wealth creation depends on our ability as a nation to climb the value chain. This will not be possible unless the key economic infrastructure underpinning economic activity supports high skills and high-income activity. The lesson of our economic experience of recent years is that the development and use of these key infrastructures, most notably ICT infrastructure is a strategic imperative for the Irish economy. It is not simply a sectoral issue. Furthermore, the exploitation of that infrastructure encompasses both a social and an economic dimension.

Increasingly, developed economies are coming to understand the impact on national productivity of the roll-out of advanced ICT infrastructure. They are also recognising the serious implications for economic competitiveness of failure to keep pace with what is happening internationally in this area.

I understand that companies are driven by commercial imperatives and the need ultimately to make a return on the resources invested in them by their shareholders. The State’s interest is a broader and longer term one. Essentially it is about positioning the economy to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive international economic marketplace. There are times when the public interest and commercial interests converge. But there are also periods when they diverge. The primary driver of Government action is the public interest and the public ultimately makes its judgement on Government’s stewardship of the economy. If Government intervenes in the market, it is because it considers it to be necessary. Its objective is to grow the market to the benefit of the economy as a whole and in the long term interest of Irish economic and social welfare.

Industry is faced with a strategic choice – to work in co-operation and partnership with Government or to stand apart and aside from the development agenda. I am happy to say that the telecommunications sector has shown itself to be prepared to partner with the infrastructural and social initiatives driven by Government in the recent past. The nature and extent of this partnership needs to be deepened because the scale of what is going to be demanded of us as an economy is going to increase incrementally in the short to medium term.

My role as Minister for Communications will be to further the provision of broadband infrastructure, ensuring that all groups in society are equipped to embrace the Knowledge Society and the opportunities that stem from doing business electronically.

I do not want an Ireland where e-commerce cannot flourish outside of Dublin; the Government cannot afford to sit idly by while the digital divide deepens. Nor do I want to see a situation where the pace of development and exploitation of ICT technologies here significantly lags behind that of our major competitor economies. This cannot and will not be allowed to happen.

You will all be aware that Phase Two of the Government’s Regional Broadband Programme will see investment in broadband networks in over 90 towns with a population of 1,500 and more, under a three-year programme with a dedicated budget of over €100 million.

Over the next two years, I would expect to see 150 smaller communities obtaining broadband connectivity by availing of the Government’s Group Broadband Scheme, announced in March last with its own budget of €25 million.

Increased access to highly evolved technologies brings with it, unfortunately, its share of difficulties. As e-consumers, we are familiar with the problems posed by viruses and spam, difficulties I am happy to see, are being addressed by appropriate regulation, information and firewalls provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and through global co-operation facilitated by organisations such as the EU and the OECD.

In addition to these international initiatives, work is underway to solve the problem of abuse of new technologies in the transmission of inappropriate material to minors.

Staff in my Department have been working closely with the industry and ComReg to investigate the feasibility of introducing a register for pre-paid mobile phones. I very much appreciate that you all share my concerns and believe we are all focussed on the same aim – the protection of vulnerable e-consumers.

The Department’s website for network security – netsecure.ie – is the central focus of a National Awareness campaign, run by my own Department, which hopes to raise awareness about some basic issues relating to computer security to those at home as well as the local business community.

It is through the combined efforts of my Department, the industry and ComReg that we create the best possible environment to further access to, and maximise quality of, the growing range of e-services available to Irish people.

damien

contd...

Competition is a factor that I believe to be crucial to the development of the sector. In maximising competition, we are ensuring that the e-consumer has a wider variety of high-quality, good value services from which to choose. The current regulatory environment minimises obstacles to market entry. It seeks to strengthen competition and to provide for a lighter regulatory touch in those cases where markets have become more competitive. But the reality is that regulation is both desirable and necessary in circumstances where competitive conditions do not apply in the market. One of my key objectives in the short term is to seek to strengthen the role of regulation where this is necessary to create competitive conditions to the benefit of Irish consumers.

ComReg has taken a number of recent initiatives to protect consumers and to educate consumers so that they may make informed decisions when choosing a telecommunications provider or service.

I wish to applaud ComReg for these initiatives, and I have no doubt that the launch of their consumer website – www.askcomreg.ie – which will include user-friendly information for consumers about products and services – will be a great success.

This conference, bringing together as it does the various interested parties in the sector, both public and private, provides a great opportunity to discuss strategies on how best to develop services and products to meet the needs of the e-consumer.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank ComReg for affording me the opportunity to address you today. The Irish economy has experienced tremendous growth in the past few years. I believe that a key factor in maintaining our success will be the provision of competitive and high quality communications and services that will not only promote and facilitate the take up of e-commerce but will help to drive social inclusion. I welcome the challenges that this will bring me and look forward to working alongside you all in attaining this goal.

Thank you for your attention.

dahamsta

I went to AskComReg.ie to Ask ComReg why IrelandOffline hadn't been invited to this event but there didn't seem to be a specific way to Ask ComReg this specific question on AskComReg.ie. I've decided to Ask ComReg via the email address supplied on the AskComReg.ie website. This is what I Asked ComReg:

From: adam beecher
Sent: 13 October 2004 15:50
To: consumerline@comreg.ie
Subject: Email from askcomreg.ie - IrelandOffline Naughty?

Dear ComReg,

As an “e-consumer” I would like to Ask ComReg why IrelandOffline, the largest representative organisation for “e-consumers” of telecommunications services in Ireland, particularly Internet services, and an organisation that ComReg itself is reputed to refer dissatisfied “e-consumers” to, was not invited to ComReg's “National Conference 2004 e-consumer” conference entitled “Serving the e-consumer” conference today, despite the apparent assurances of former Commissioner Etain Doyle that they would be? Have they been naughty?

Regards,
Adam Beecher

I was giggling mightily at the strung-out, multi-named title of the conference, which reminded me of one of Jack McFarland's wonderful creations ("Just ComReg!"), but I nearly wet myself when I went to see what position Doyle held in the organisation these days, and found that she had been replaced with a shadowy Commissioner Vacant. Who is this mysterious Commissioner Vacant?

And what happened to Etain? Was Etain Eaten by Commissioner Vacant?

adam

Ripwave

The Minister wrote:

I do not want an Ireland where e-commerce cannot flourish outside of Dublin.

Does that mean he's going to do something about the shambles that is GLS and whoever handles package deliveries in Ireland? Ordering something off the internet from Europe or the US, and it can get to Dublin airport in 24-36 hours, and then take a week to make it to your house.

(Is there an entrepreneur out there who's figured out that you can't deliver packages to peoples houses while they're at work, and that Saturday and Sunday and evening deliveries are the way to go? And 21st century logistics should be able to handle calling people an hour before a package is due to be delivered, so that, if they aren't going to be there to receive it, they can let the system know to reschedule, thereby saving wasted time by the driver).

bk

Ripwave wrote:

(Is there an entrepreneur out there who's figured out that you can't deliver packages to peoples houses while they're at work, and that Saturday and Sunday and evening deliveries are the way to go? And 21st century logistics should be able to handle calling people an hour before a package is due to be delivered, so that, if they aren't going to be there to receive it, they can let the system know to reschedule, thereby saving wasted time by the driver).

Actually I got a package from Dell, via DHL at 8pm a few night ago. I was very surprised and pleased. However he may have just being catching up on a back log.

Ripwave

bk wrote:

Actually I got a package from Dell, via DHL at 8pm a few night ago. I was very surprised and pleased. However he may have just being catching up on a back log.

I ordered a printer from Dell on Wednesday the 29th. It was sent to the couriers on Friday morning. I got a phone call on the following Saturday morning (8 days later), and it was finally delivered on Tuesday the 12th. Someone I work with ordered something from Komplett that same week, and had a simiiliar delay.