Telecom will wire a town to the information age

TELECOM Eireann has launched a £15 million competition to provide free access to computers, the Internet and telephone voice-mail for the inhabitants of one Irish town. Designed as a flagship project to kickstart Ireland's entry into the information age, the initiative will turn the winning town into a unique test bed for modern communications technologies.

Children from the age of five will have regular access to computers, the Internet and other learning tools, such as video-conferencing. Every home will be equipped with sophisticated phones equipped with voice-mail, fax and video-mail services. Businesses will be provided with high-speed access to the Internet and other networks.

"This initiative will affect everyone from the chief executive of the largest corporations to the youngest children in school," the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Dukes, said at the announcement of the competition.

The promise of a brave new world of technology - for free - has excited keen interest among the towns that are eligible to apply. In all, 63 towns with populations of between 5,000 and 39,000 have been invited to submit applications.

The exact package will depend on the size of the winning town; the smaller the town, the more individual inhabitants will benefit.

Chamber of commerce representatives from many of the eligible towns attended yesterday's announcement in Dublin. Telecom's chief executive, Mr Alfie Kane, told them last week's report of the Government's information society steering committee had shown how unprepared Ireland was for the information age.

In a recent study of preparedness, he said, this country ranked only 23rd out of 26 countries surveyed. Fewer than one-third of the general public and a similar proportion of senior managers had actually heard of the information age.

Researchers from Dublin City University will track the project to see how people react to the new technology and - how - or if they benefit. Studies into previous technology initiatives tend to show that most benefits accrue to a minority of users, while the rest of the population makes minimal use of the new technology. However, in preparation for the new initiative, Telecom has studied similar projects in the US.

Up to six towns will be shortlisted by the assessment panel, which comprises two representatives of Telecom, Mr Dan Flinter, chief executive of Forbairt, Mr Danny O'Hare, president of DCU, and Prof Sean Scanlan of UCD's electronic engineering department.

A decision on the applications will be made at the end of June and the project is expected to start immediately afterwards.

Mr Kane said the project was one of a number of technology initiatives the company was pursuing, including:

. the complete digitalisation of: the phone network by 1999;

. the introduction of phones with voice-mail to every home by 2000;

. the construction of a broadband ring around Ireland for users' transmitting large volumes of information;

. and an accelerated roll-out of ISDN.