Exporters warn on slow roll out of broadband

Irish firms are suffering because of the slow roll out of broadband across the State, according to the Irish Exporters' Association (IEA).

Speaking yesterday at the group's annual lunch, IEA president Michael Counahan said that limited access to broadband was hurting the export capabilities of many small and medium-sized firms.

"Irish businesses, particularly those trading internationally, are facing serious disadvantages unless urgent action is taken to address the problem," he said, as the group launched a report entitled Barriers to E-Business Development in the Regions.

According to the report, take- up of broadband in the Republic is the seventh lowest among the OECD countries, with only 128,000 digital subscriber lines (DSL) at the end of March. Furthermore, to reach the current OECD average, the Republic would have to install more than 700,000 new DSLs over the next three years, which at Eircom's current roll-out rate of 6,000 DSL lines a month, would take more than five years.

Currently, just over half of Dubliners have access to broadband, while in Leinster only a quarter and in Connacht only a fifth, have access. This compares with the North, where 98.5 per cent of people have access to broadband.

Speaking at the lunch, Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey said that the Government was "very very committed" to rolling out broadband "as fast as possible".

He said it was on target to have 400,000 people in the Republic connected to broadband by the end of next year. About 70,000 people have access to broadband now, compared with about 10,000 two-and-a-half years ago, Mr Dempsey said.

Mr Counahan urged the Government to push Eircom to accelerate the opening up of the telephone network to enable its competitors, such as Smart Telecom, to provide broadband services. Eircom is currently in dispute with the industry regulator ComReg over the timing of the so-called local loop unbundling.

Mr Dempsey said the Government was investigating Wimax, a system that enables users to connect to the internet without wires and without being a specific distance from a connection point.

According to the IEA, introducing Wimax would enable the Republic to make a "rapid leap forward" from having a major wired broadband infrastructure deficit to a global leader in wireless broadband infrastructure.