Telecom will spend £100m to develop broadband

Telecom Eireann has responded to a call for accelerated broadband investment in the telecoms network, with the announcement that it will invest £100 million to develop broadband infrastructure. The investment will be part of Telecom Eireann's £350 million capital investment in infrastructure for 1999, and will lead to an 80 per cent increase in high speed optic fibre available in the network, from 55,000 fibre kilometres to 95,000 over the next year.

The National Competitiveness Council's (NCC) "Statement on Telecommunications", published yesterday, warns that the introduction of competition alone may not be enough to secure adequate broadband investment throughout the state. Broadband communications allow the high speed transmission of voice, video or data information along a cable carrying several channels at once.

It identified electronic commerce as pivotal to Irish industrial development over the next five to 10 years, and called for the establishment of a national policy framework to ensure the provision of structural funds to remote areas. Telecom Eireann says its new investment will position Ireland as the European centre of excellence for electronic commerce. It will also provide for a rapid expansion of Telecom Eireann's existing network.

The NCC's 47-page statement compliments many of the recent recommendations of the high-level Advisory Committee on Telecommunications, appointed by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke. However, it also calls for a review of the mandate of the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR), which it believes should include the power to monitor and regulate telecommunications prices to end-users, and control the telecommunications price cap mechanism. These powers currently lie with the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke.

The statement said that co-ordinated awareness programmes need to be developed by all trade and representative associations and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the development agencies to achieve increased adoption of information and communications technologies. In particular, it advocated the establishment of a benchmarking system for continuous monitoring of the competitiveness of domestic and international telecommunications tariffs and services.

Digital television was highlighted as a major opportunity for Irish businesses, and the statement said any regulatory framework should ensure fair access for competing technologies, including efficient use of the radio frequency spectrum. It also called for the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to develop the long proposed digital parks as quickly as possible in the Dublin Docklands and Citywest Business Park.

As part of its £100 million broadband investment announcement, Telecom Eireann added it would begin trading in Northern Ireland today. It will offer its entire telecommunications range to corporate and residential customers in Northern Ireland. The total investment will be about £50 million, leading to the employment of 500 people over the next five years.