Last week Forfás published their report “Ireland’s Broadband Performance and Policy Actions”. According to the report Ireland has 21.4 subscribers per 100 inhabitants compared to the OECD average of 22.4 (excluding mobile broadband as defined by the OECD for international comparisons).
The report states that “some of the best-performing countries such as Denmark, Netherlands and South Korea in the OECD have very high urban populations. By contrast, Ireland has a high proportion of people living in rural areas (39 percent in 2005 compared to the OECD average of 24 percent). Finland is a notable exception as it achieves high levels of penetration despite similar urbanisation rates as Ireland.”
Wireless technologies are suggested as being a particularly good alternative to fixed line wired broadband in rural areas where subscriber densities are lower and the economics of investment in fibre to the home/premises is less attractive. However, the report notes that “wireless technologies require fibre infrastructure to be extended out to radio base stations which serve consumers. For technologies such as LTE to deliver high speed mobile broadband services, mobile stations will be required at closely spaced intervals and high-speed fibre will be required to reach these stations. This has implications in terms of complying with planning procedures.”
The full report is available here Ireland’s Broadband Performance and Policy Actions
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