IRELAND HAS moved up marginally in the international league table of broadband services, according to a survey conducted in 72 countries by an Oxford University business school. The State is now placed 13th in the world rankings, based on the quality of broadband services, one place higher than last year.
Ireland is ahead of Britain, the US and Germany but is not included among an elite group of countries that are seen as ready for “the applications of tomorrow”. Such applications – high definition internet TV and high-quality video communications – require very fast upload and download broadband speeds; and these are not yet available here.
Improvement in the quality of broadband services in Ireland is long overdue. Given our reliance on major US multinationals – such as Microsoft, Intel, Google and others in the technology sector – for export led growth, a poor quality national broadband service has been an embarrassing anomaly for a country keen to exploit the potential of the knowledge economy and the abilities of a highly educated workforce. High quality, high speed broadband has become an essential part of any developed economy’s communications infrastructure. But for Ireland, in particular, broadband also offers one of the best ways to overcome the State’s peripheral location and compensate for its relative isolation and distance from major world markets.
In this regard, Ireland is now relatively well placed. Since 2008, according to the study, broadband download speed here has increased by 87 per cent. And, as Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has pointed out, this reflects the €1.5 billion of public and private money invested in broadband networks, which has seen the number of subscribers doubling in the period. Certainly, Ireland is well advanced in reaching the EU’s target of nationwide availability of broadband by 2013. However, there is little room for complacency.
For while the survey highlights a major and rapid improvement both in the availability and quality of broadband services, it also shows that the current broadband network – while adequate for today’s needs – is not equipped to handle tomorrow’s applications. Much will now depend on the speed and urgency with which the Government meets that challenge and ensures the broadband gap that has opened between countries that are ready for tomorrow’s digital world and those – like Ireland – that are not yet, is narrowed and quickly closed.