Broadband plan to deliver 100% coverage

A €223m scheme to deliver broadband coverage to all of Ireland by September 2010 has been announced, but there has been criticism of the speeds which will be provided.

The Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan, said a contract had been agreed with 3 Ireland to deliver the scheme to the remaining 10% of the population currently without cover.

While Ireland has over 1.2 million subscribers to broadband, approximately a third of the country is without coverage. Now it is planned that everyone will have high-speed internet, no matter where they live, by September 2010.

The company awarded the contract, 3, says this will create 170 jobs and promised the 21 month deadline will be met.

Communications Minister Eamon Ryan accepted the roll-out should have been completed by the end of this year, but says it is now going to happen and the result will be a boost to employment.

But Labour described the scheme as underwhelming, with Senator Alan Kelly criticising the speeds provided under the plan. He described Minister Ryan's moves as 'a hodge-podge of wireless, satellite and land line solutions and that will leave Ireland in the technological dark ages'.

A group lobbying for universal broadband access also says the plan unveiled by the Communications Minister is a quick fix solution that will not prepare the country for technological developments that are coming down the line.

Ireland Offline says the national broadband strategy offers an imaginative approach to the problem but only as an interim solution.

Chairman Eamonn Wallace says the mobile and satellite broadband technology that will be used to drive the scheme will not deliver the level of speed needed to support anything other than basic internet applications. He suggests the Government should have taken a long term view and invested in fibre connections that allow faster browsing speeds and support next generation technologies.

Building work will have to take place at 390 locations, 160 of which are new. According to some analysts, this means a requirement for planning permission and scope for possible delays if appeals are lodged.