Broadband in Ireland: Blinded by the stats
What is with all of these different statistics on broadband levels in Ireland? With ComReg, Eircom, IrelandOffLine, Electric News, Silicon Republic and many others offering different versions of bad news, do any of us know exactly how many people in Ireland use the Internet? And of those, how many actually have broadband?
Apparently, we are 14th out of the 15 pre-2004 EU countries in terms of broadband takeup. According to the CSO (as quoted in Silicon Republic), only 26% of households with internet access actually have broadband, as compared with an EU average of 62%.
IrelandOffline reported in September 2006 that Ireland’s broadband penetration rate stands at a paltry 8%, compared with 27% in the Netherlands, 19% in the UK, 12.6% in Portual and 10% in Slovenia. In terms of broadband, Scandinavia, Benelux, Germany and the UK lead the way. Ireland is an anomaly considering our geographic position, with broadband takeup rates comparable to the ex-Eastern Bloc countries.
Another IrelandOffline report stated that one-third of dialup users in Ireland could not get broadband, and that the digital divide between Dublin and the rest of Ireland is steadily widening.
While broadband takeup seems to be on the rise, with the CSO reporting 47% growth since Q2 2005, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
Given the increasing role of the internet in business, entertainment, shopping and education, it’s a real shame that Ireland is such a laggard.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
All I know is my parents can’t get broadband at home, and it doesn’t look like they will be able to for some time yet.
January 16th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
My god, are we really that far down the broadband table?
January 17th, 2007 at 9:12 am
It’s prolly a good thing, if I had broadband where i am i’d be on second life all evening! nothing much else to do where i live!
March 6th, 2007 at 2:35 am
We are indeed, on that matter again, years behind some other countries. An exemple would be to have a look at our neighbors in France. Almost every broadband providers offer the same package at same price and here is a summary.
For € 29.99 per month you get a “small” package that includes:
- 28 Mo download / 1 Mo Upload —> Yes! that’s 28 Mo upload!
- Free unlimited national phone calls,
- Free unlimited international phone calls to 49 countries,
- Includes line rental,
- Wifi modem and router,
- Hi Definition (HD) TV including 100 chanels, and 150 extra chanels in option.
So, is Ireland still in stone age….. I let you decide.
What the hell are the providers doing here?
Would it be that they have no intrest to upgrade their services since no competition came yet to kick ass the way Freebox did in France?
Regards