Sir, - I expect that many of your readers, when confronted with newspaper articles on "local loop unbundling", find their eyes glazing over, and move swiftly on. This is unfortunate, since this new technology is of crucial importance to the Irish economy. In simple terms, unbundling allows the copper phone lines that come into every home and business in the country to be used to carry very high-speed data.
If this technology were allowed to blossom, each of us could have access to the Internet at speeds of more than 30 times what is possible today. New opportunities would open up for delivery of TV channels and streamed music or radio. Ireland would gain a vital lead in a whole range of broadband industry sectors.
Eircom has been "trialling" this technology with selected members of its staff for more than three years now. If past experience is any guide, it will still be trialling it in 2010. There is no shortage of companies, which, if given good access to the copper cables that come into our homes and offices, would be delighted to provide the service. Eircom's response to this is to offer them access at a rate that is among the highest in the world and some three times greater than that offered by British Telecom.
The situation today is very analogous to that which existed in the early 1990s when mass Internet use was becoming a major phenomenon. At that time, Ireland partially missed the boat due in no small part to the high cost of leased international and national circuits from Telecom Eireann. Thanks to several recent government initiatives, we are now catching up on lost ground. I would appeal to Mrs O'Rourke and to our telecommunications regulator to do everything in their power to make sure that the current "local loop unbundling" debate results in an outcome which will allow Ireland to be ahead of the curve this time around. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Donal O'Mahony, Director, Networks and Telecommunications Research Group, Trinity College, Dublin 2.