Dempsey Responsible for Ireland's Dismal Broadband Performance

De Rebel

From ENN

For the record 18 May
Wednesday, May 18 2005
by Deirdre McArdle

Ireland falls behind Ethiopia in broadband provision

The Minister for Communications, Noel Dempsey, must take full responsibility for Ireland's dismal broadband performance, according to the Labour Party spokesperson on communications, Deputy Tommy Broughan. Deputy Broughan revealed that Ireland has now fallen behind Ethiopia in terms of broadband provision. It was recently reported in the NewScientist that Ethiopia has launched an ambitious plan to wire the whole country for broadband internet within three years.

De Rebel

From The Labour Party Website

Ethipia prepares to overtake Ireland in broadband provision
Issued : Wednesday 18 May, 2005

Statement by Tommy Broughan TD
Spokesperson on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and Assistant Whip

Labour Party Spokesperson on Communications, Deputy Tommy Broughan, has said that the Minister for Communications, Noel Dempsey, must take full responsibility for Ireland falling further and further behind in the roll-out of broadband infrastructure, that has seen Ireland fall behind Ethiopia in terms of broadband provision.

At the recent Galway conference on broadband, the Minister admitted that his strategy is not working and that he may have to intervene 'where market forces or private investment are unable, or unwilling, to meet broader economic and social requirements'.

He also referred to 'certain bottlenecks in this market' and threatened that he would examine 'all available options' if necessary.

It was striking, however, that the Minister's speech made no reference at all to the ambitious target of 600,000 households with broadband connections by the end of 2006 which he challenged the industry to meet at an earlier broadband conference in UCD.

He now knows that even this modest target is unlikely to be met.

The Minister's embarrassment is compounded by reports from international indices on how far Ireland has fallen behind. Last week, my colleague Proinsias De Rossa MEP drew attention to the fact that just one-third of Irish companies have broadband connections. This compares to an E.U. average of 53% and highs of up to 80% in Scandinavia.

Indeed Ireland came third lowest of 19 E.U. countries which provided statistics for 2004 on broadband connections to enterprises.

But outside Europe also, there are signs that more and more countries are pulling ahead of Ireland in terms of broadband infrastructure with possible disastrous consequences for Ireland's rate of inward investment. In this week's edition of the NewScientist it is reported that Ethiopia has launched an ambitious plan to wire the whole country for broadband internet within three years.

By next November the government in Addis Ababa expects to have up to 500,000 broadband connections to homes and businesses (a greatly superior rollout to Ireland's).

Soon Ireland will drop out of the top 30 countries for broadband provision and Minister Dempsey will be presiding over an accelerated flight of ICT companies from this country.

De Rebel

And here for the sake of completness is the statement by Proinsias De Rossa referred to in my previous post

EU survey shows Ireland bottom of class on broadband
Issued : Friday 13 May, 2005

Statement by Proinsias De Rossa MEP
Vice-President, European Socialist Group

Dublin Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa has slammed the Government’s record on broadband after an EuroStat survey released today showed that just one-third of Irish companies have broadband connections. This compares to an EU average of 53% and highs of up to 80% in the Nordic countries.

"The Government repeatedly claims that it is committed to establishing quality broadband infrastructure across the country but this EU survey shows Ireland is simply not at the races.

"Almost twice as many enterprises in Slovenia, a country that joined the EU only one year ago, have broadband connections as Irish enterprises. In fact, Ireland comes ahead of just Greece (21%) and Poland (28%) of the 19 EU countries that were able to provide statistics for 2004 on broadband connections by enterprises.

"The refusal by Eircom’s owners to invest in broadband infrastructure since its ill-advised privatisation six years ago and the Government’s failure to pursue a national rollout strategy for broadband is putting this country at a serious economic disadvantage.

"On the day that the National Broadband Conference is taking place in Galway, this EU survey confirms recent worrying reports on the Government’s continued broadband failure. The November 2004 Forfas Broadband Benchmarking study showed Ireland ranked 18th of 21 countries in terms of DSL take-up while the Information Society Commission has identified the high cost of Irish DSL services.

An No, I'm not a card carrying member of the Labour Party, before anybody asks. Not yet anyway.

govinda

Slightly OT, but I couldn't help laughing

Eircom Net Travel Guide - Ethiopia

http://www.whatsontheplanet.com/wow/ptnr/eircom/page.jsp?fx=location&loc_id=131039

Travelling in Ethiopia won't be everyone's cup of shai: there's not much tourist infrastructure here, and checking your email rivals carrier pigeon for speed. But the landscape is splendid, the people are welcoming, the sense of history is tangible and you won't have to worry about crowds of tourists.

SkepticOne

Not wishing to defend Dempsey in any way, but has a specific course of action been formally recommended to DCMNR by IOFFL?

damien

Not formally. We expressed our wishes in a meeting with him a while back. But he surely can't be let off the mark because IOFFL has not written him a wishlist?

damien

Last Word on TodayFM 13/05/05

PRESENTER – MATT COOPER
Many listeners have been in contact with this programme over the last year to complain about the availability of broadband services in this country. Well, the Minister with responsibly for that is the Minister for Communications, Noel Dempsey and he’s with us now. Good evening to you Minister.

NOEL DEMPSEY – MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS
Good evening.

MATT COOPER
Do you understand and share the frustrations of many people, that broadband is rolling out very slowly across the country and into many parts of the country it’s not even going?

NOEL DEMPSEY
I certainly do. I think it’s a major frustration. Not only is it a frustration for the individuals concerned, I think at government level it’s frustrating and it’s not good for the country, not good for the economy and not good for the image of the country generally.

MATT COOPER
Who’s to blame?

NOEL DEMPSEY
Well, going into the game blame or the blame game is not, probably not going to be that helpful, but I think it is a fact that ...

MATT COOPER
But sorry, you have to point the finger at somebody. You’ve a whole load of private operators who should be providing the service to make money. They’re not doing so. The state has a very limited direct involvement, so surely somebody is to blame.

NOEL DEMPSEY
Yes, well, I think the major difficulty was the way that the Dot Com bubble burst in the early part of 2000/2001, that particular era. Companies then stopped investing and I think from, it was for that reason in 2002 that the government embarked on a, kind of, direct intervention in providing the fibre optic cable demands around about the country.

The group broadband schemes were now pushing out the schools broadband. The private sector certainly has not or did not in the past respond in the way that government wanted to rollout the broadband. I suppose if you call that blaming somebody, then that’s where I point the finger.

MATT COOPER
Okay, well, are they doing it now? Are the Eircoms and the Smart Telecoms and the British Telecoms, are they doing enough to deliver the service quickly enough to enough people?

NOEL DEMPSEY
Well, I think yes, the answer to that is yes, that the indications are there that all of those companies are now taking this seriously. They obviously see that it is a government imperative, but they also know that from their own point of view it makes commercial sense and if you take it that we had around about five thousand people using broadband a couple of years ago, we now have a hundred and forty thousand.

Eircom have come out clearly and said that their target is five hundred thousand broadband users by the end of 2007. I’ve asked them to be more ambitious but they have set particular targets. So things are happening at a must faster rate now than they were at any stage previously. We’re actually increasing the number of people on broadband by about thirty percent per quarter. But ...

MATT COOPER
But yet, Minister ...

NOEL DEMPSEY
... one thing I’d say about it Matt, we get a bit hung up and I mean, I’d be as guilty as anybody else, perhaps on quantity. I think we need to focus a little bit more as well on the quality issue.

We are talking in many respects about a DSL service which is about a half a megabit. We need to be talking about one and two megabits and that’s a quality issue and that’s where I want people to focus as well.

MATT COOPER
But indeed, but Minister, we have many complaints from people to this programme saying that they live in areas where they should be able to get broadband. It’s not even far lying rural areas that they’re living in. They can’t get it. Who do they complain to?

Who can they force to do something when they’re willing to pay for this and it’s not even a question that they might just want it for their enjoyment or entertainment at home, it could be that they need it for serious business reasons, either at home or in the workplace?

NOEL DEMPSEY
Well, there are ways and means of getting broadband in any part of Ireland at this point in time. There are wireless options, WiMax, there’s obviously through the telephone line, there’s satellite offerings as well, so you will get broadband anywhere you like in Ireland.

Now, the problem is in some cases the cost of that. From our point of view, the obligation is on the providers to respond to the market. We are trying to stimulate the market by doing what we’re doing, as I said, rolling out the fibre optic cable, by having the group broadband or County Broadband Scheme in place as well and I’ve no doubt that the Schools Broadband Scheme will also stimulate the market.

So I would say that while the private sector was very, very slow to respond to this, they are now up and at it and I believe that there’ll be very, very significant advances and very, very significant improvements.

MATT COOPER
There are those, Minister, who would say it’s a pity the state sold Eircom, but we won’t go back into that old argument again. Alright, Minister, we have to leave it there. Thank you very much Minister for Communications, Noel Dempsey, for joining us.

Solair

WiMax ? In rural Ireland?! Really!?

I haven't found any! Is it being operated by the "little people" from their fairy forts or something?

Apparently there are pots of gold at the end of every rainbow too!

Its about time that the minister stopped living in denial. The broadband infrastrucuture's absolutely pathetic.

They talk endlessly about backbone fiber optic infrastructure like as if it's the sollution to absolutely everything. From what I gather, Ireland has vast amounts of fiber criss crossing the country with absolutely no means of connecting anyone to that fiber.

It's like government policy is entirely aimed at large corporate users who need fiber connections. That obviously keeps the IDA off their back. However, if you're a small to medium business or a home business / home user you're at the mercy of Eircom.

Satellite broadband, looking at eircom's prices, isn't an option for anyone other than the super-rich and even they'd have difficulty justifying it.

damien

Alternatives to dsl eh Minister? Cheap and available?

Well, we put a little pricing table together and as you can see the alternatives aren't very available and some are amazingly expensive.

http://www.irelandoffline.org/home/staticpages/index.php?page=20050527132231894

All fine if you can get IrishBroadband if your line fails in Dublin, but if your line is not enabled in a rural location your alternatives are sat or isdn. Nothing affordable about them.