EIRCOM CONFIRMED to an Oireachtas committee this week that its investment in next-generation broadband is under review in light of the economic downturn.
The briefing to TDs suggests that people in sparsely populated rural areas are unlikely to benefit from new fixed-line broadband technologies.
Eircom head of public policy Pat Galvin was unable to say how much Eircom would be able to invest in next-generation broadband. The hearing was also told that, because of the limitations of DSL – the technology Eircom uses to deliver broadband over phone lines – people living more than 5km from a phone exchange would not receive a high-speed broadband service.
Ronan Lupton, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators, reacted angrily to Eircom’s revelations.
“Eircom’s debt woes are now a national issue and its overwhelming dominance on the exchange-to-user infrastructure must be broken to allow other networks invest in the services we need to become the knowledge economy the Government envisages,” he said.
Irish Rural Link – a lobby group for rural communities – accused Eircom of “condemning rural Ireland to the digital dark ages”.
Eircom’s revelation comes a week after its mobile subsidiary, Meteor, launched a mobile broadband service it claims is the fastest in the State and one of the first in Europe capable of speeds of 14.4 megabits per second (Mbps).
Meteor’s Broadband to Go is available in the greater Dublin area and Cork, with coverage in “the top five cities” promised by the end of the year before a nationwide roll-out in 2010.
Meteor chief executive Larry Smith said trials of 21.1Mbps speeds would start by the end of the year.
Taken together, these two pieces of news suggest rural dwellers can expect their broadband needs to be fulfilled using wireless technology. This is supported by Government policy: the €223 million National Broadband Scheme, which will provide broadband to the 10 per cent of the population currently unable to get a service, was won by 3 Ireland, which will use mobile broadband.
The communications regulator, ComReg, has also started a consultation process on how the radio spectrum could be harnessed for broadband and other services.
While Meteor’s road map for speed upgrades indicate the “digital divide” between what is available in urban and rural areas may not be as stark as Eircom’s Oireachtas briefing suggested, Mr Smith conceded at the Broadband to Go launch that the speeds were theoretical maximums and actual speeds for users would be lower.
