A new survey of broadband has found that, despite strong growth in take-up, Ireland still lags behind other big countries.
Forfás's 2007 survey of broadband found that there were almost 700,000 subscribers at the end of June, an increase of 90% compared with a year earlier and the fastest rate of growth among 32 OECD countries.
This move Ireland's ranking up from 24th to 21st of 32, but the broadband penetration rate of 15.4% still lags the OECD average of 18.8%.
Forfás chief executive Martin Cronin also pointed to the high cost of faster broadband speeds. He said the highest speed available in Ireland - 6 Mbit/s - costs four to five times more than considerably higher-speed services in countries such as France, Germany and Hungary.
He calls for the development of 'next generation' telecoms networks to keep pace with international competitors.
