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Dermot, U-Turn me on.
Dermot,
I take my hat off. You really are a cute whore. None of the public and the journos will notice.
Hidden in your harsh and demanding looking "Draft policy Direction to ComReg" – I got a bit of a fright myself when I read it the first time – you've made the biggest U-turn in Irish communications policy aspirations.
Up to now the declared policy of your government was:
"Government Targets: The Government’s primary target for the sector is to see the widespread availability of affordable, always-on broadband within three years. Specifically, the aim is to see Ireland within the top decile of OECD countries for broadband connectivity by 2005." (from the Information Society report "Ireland's Broadband Future", December 2003)
As you well know, the "top decile" means, Ireland should be within the top 10 percent of the 30 OECD countries, that is at least at rank 3 or 4 - rubbing shoulders with the likes of South Korea, Japan, Canada and Sweden.
We at ComReg have done everything not to make this aspiration look totally daft: We massaged survey figures, we lied to the public in our reports, we blew little glimpses of progress out of all proportions.
All is getting good now. You got sense. In your policy direction all that nonsense is wiped from the table in one single sentence:
"The Goal is to be at or better than the EU average for end-user access to and usage of broadband by mid 2005." (page five)
Forget Japan, forget Sweden, forget UK or Germany. Now it will be good enough to beat our new poor EU cousins Poland, Latvia and Lithuania…
With the nine new East European EU entrants, that goal will achieve itself without any further need of progress in Ireland. By May 2004 we will already be there. Thank you Dermot.
A look at the map showing the Internet penetration levels of these new entrants,Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Slovak Republic, Lativa and Lituania,(Slovenia and Estonia being exceptions) lights up my heart. They will pull down the EU average to such an extent, that even Ireland can reach this level. Who would have thought the new EU entrants could prove so valuable for Ireland's Internet and Broadband progress?
Hopefully not many people have the stupid idea to respond to the Department's proposed Draft Policy Direction and rock the boat. But I am confident you have the same procedures in place for such feedback as we do here at ComReg: Straight to the bin.
resources:
Information on the new EU entrants' telecommunications situation from www.budde.com.au:
• Five of the prospective EU members are the countries included in Central Europe – Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. All have liberalised their markets but little competition exists in their fixed-line markets. Interconnection agreements have been difficult and local access more so. There have been few profits to be made in the fixed-line markets and many alternative operators are in financial difficulties;
• The three countries in the Baltic market report – Estonia, Lativa and Lituania – are also amongst the countries expected to join the EU in 2004. Estonia was the first EU applicant country to fully unbundle the local loop;
• Fixed-line numbers are declining in Central Europe and the Baltic countries as cheap prepaid mobile services and the lack of affordable PCs for household Internet use encourage a switch to mobiles. Only Slovenia, with its higher income levels, has not seen a decline in fixed-line teledensity. It has fallen particularly rapidly in Lithuania, from a peak of over 32% in 2000 to under 26% at end-2002;
• Internet use in the region is generally low to very low, in a large part due to the lack of affordability of PCs. Internet penetration levels are mostly in line with income levels but exceptions are Greece, which has dramatically low Internet penetration levels for its level of economic development, Croatia, which has higher Internet penetration than Greece, and Estonia, which has Internet use levels similar to the EU average;
• Broadband services are available in most countries but with very low penetration as yet. Once again, Estonia is an exception. It had the 16th highest DSL penetration in the world at end-June 2003. Estonia has also been quick to introduce Wi-Fi networks;
The Broadband part of Dermot Ahern's draft directive (page 5)
"Draft Policy Directions to ComReg
5. Fixed
i. Broadband
a) Reason for proposed direction: The development of broadband is a key enabler to enhance and maintain Ireland’s economic and social development. It is important that the regulatory environment underpins the development of available, affordable and competitive broadband services.
b) Proposed policy direction
Comreg shall use regulatory and enforcement tools, where necessary, to support Government initiatives and remove regulatory barriers, if any exist, to such initiatives to develop broadband. In encouraging the further rollout of broadband Comreg shall have a particular focus on:
• the residential and SME sectors;
• balanced regional development and;
•incentivising broadband provision on alternative platforms.
The Goal is to be at or better than the EU average for end-user access to and usage of broadband by mid 2005."
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