Minister promises to avert regional divide on broadband access

THE GOVERNMENT will not allow a "digital divide" to develop between parts of the State that have access to new broadband services and those that do not, Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan said yesterday.

Speaking ahead of the Government's publication today of its "Next Generation" broadband strategy, the Minister said competition between different service providers would go a long way to determining the type of platform used to deliver broadband in the future.

Addressing delegates at a broadband conference in Dublin organised by UPC Ireland, Digiweb and Magnet Networks, Mr Ryan said the number of service providers (67) was a "signal that our policy approach is starting to work".

He said the aim of the national broadband scheme was to "create the environment for such investment decisions and improvements and to intervene in areas . . . where the market cannot deliver".

The next generation broadband paper will be published on a consultation basis.

Mr Ryan said he hoped to gather the views of industry and stakeholders at a meeting in the autumn.

The strategy will set out the Government's vision for how high-speed broadband can be delivered.

Mr Ryan said yesterday that 50 per cent of the population now had access to broadband through their home or work.

In particular the paper will address the issue of whether the development should be Government-funded or led by the commercial sector.

In the latter case, there is the issue of State funding for high-quality broadband in areas not deemed commercially viable, said the Minister.

With Government resources under strain, Mr Ryan strongly suggested yesterday that much of the broadband infrastructure deficit would have to be made up by private sector investment.

A combination of competition and collaboration would be behind the delivery of a new network "where there is open access and an exchange of customers between networks" and it was possible to make a "business case for the development of the very best, most flexible, most open access broadband system".

Cable, fibre and mobile broadband providers were competing in the Irish market "but in many senses complementing each other", Mr Ryan said.

To underline the economic imperative of improving Ireland's high-quality broadband network, the Minister referred to the ESRI's mid-term review which estimated that by 2025, three-quarters of a million people would be working in business and financial services.

"By that time, some 70 per cent of exports from the Irish economy will be market-traded services, all of which are going to be digitally traded.

"It is an indication of how this is going to have an increasingly important role in our economy," he said.