Rabbitte holds broadband summit

MINISTER FOR Communications Pat Rabbitte has met telecoms industry leaders in a bid to speed up the roll-out of high speed broadband, seen as pivotal to Ireland’s economic recovery.

In an almost unprecedented show of industry collaboration, chief executives from Ireland’s 10 leading telecommunication and internet service providers attended a forum chaired by the Minister yesterday and committed to develop a roadmap for high speed broadband by year end.

The group, known as the Next Generational Broadband Taskforce, has set up four working groups, the first of which is responsible for identifying and removing barriers to broadband roll-out. A second group will review broadband targets set by the European Commission with a view to establishing whether these can be achieved earlier than the 2020 deadline set by Europe.

The remaining two groups will look at issues such as freeing up spectrum to facilitate faster mobile broadband roll-out, and the role of Government in delivering online services.

After the three-hour forum concluded yesterday, Vodafone Ireland chief executive Jeroen Hoencamp said Mr Rabbitte’s approach of talking to the private sector to find a model “where firms can compete to build infrastructure to drive innovative data services” was the most realistic approach to meeting the ambitious targets set by the taskforce.

Peter Evans, strategy director at BT Ireland, predicted that private investment would deliver the majority of network infrastructure required to give Ireland a next generation access (NGA) network.

“However, in locations where a commercial business case for NGA cannot be achieved, we believe the State has a role to play in bridging the funding gap by conducting an open access, technology-neutral tendering process with the private sector,” Mr Evans said.

Stephen Shurrock, chief executive of O2 Ireland, emphasised the need for greater industry collaboration to help accelerate the introduction of new technologies.

A spokeswoman for Three said: “It is important that the industry works together to ensure Ireland is at the forefront of investment in telecommunications, to create the best environment to attract investment in Ireland.”

Eircom said the challenges of providing high speed broadband could only be addressed through a collaborative process.