[commedia] FW: Irish Fitted for Broadband Rings

Fri Mar 22 17:05:32 GMT 2002

Irish Fitted for Broadband Rings
By Karlin Lillington

2:00 a.m. March 19, 2002 PST
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,51105,00.html

DUBLIN, Ireland -- The Irish government will invest 300
million euros to build 50,000 kilometers of high-speed,
fiber-optic Internet access rings around 123 of its towns and
cities.

The country hopes that the rings, funded 90 percent by the
Irish government and 10 percent by local authorities, will help
vault the country out of last place in the domestic broadband
race of Western Europe.

The competition-neutral rings will not be operated or owned
by any of the main telecommunications companies operating in
Ireland, but by a public/private partnership company that
would offer all comers access to the network. A national
public access network is also in the works and would ultimately
string together all the fiber rings.

A few other nations, including Sweden, Canada and Korea,
have built individual local access city rings, and the idea is
being debated in U.S. government circles. But Irish officials
believe their network would be the first national initiative on
such a scale.

With the Irish government absorbing the build-out costs, the
network's operator company will not have to recoup capital
costs for the network. Instead, it would offer low-priced access
to companies -- including any of Ireland's telcos -- that want
to offer services to businesses or consumers, said Brendan
Tuohy, general secretary for Ireland's Department of Public
Enterprise.

"We believe that this is the future and we're prepared to
move in this direction and catalyze this," Tuohy said. He said
the state would be looking at other options for getting people
online, such as satellite and wireless broadband, in addition
to fiber.

The three-phase broadband program will bring fiber Internet
networks to 19 towns -- ranging from large cities such as Cork
and Galway to the remote, Gaelic-speaking village of Gaoth
Dobhair in County Donegal -- by the end of next year. A
second phase will bring 48 more towns and 1 million residents
online, with the final 56 towns connected by 2005.

Minister for Public Enterprise Mary O'Rourke said she is
aiming to have a 5 Mb connection as a standard for Irish
homes by 2005. "Regional broadband has become a rallying
call," said O'Rourke, who noted that critics have pointed to "a
chasm, a deficit" in this area.

According to IDC telecommunications analyst Hamish
Mackenzie, Ireland, which lacks a single commercial DSL
offering and has almost no cable modem access, is tied with
Greece in last place for domestic broadband connectivity in
Western Europe. Ireland currently languishes in 27th place for
broadband among OECD (Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development) countries, although it is in
second place for low-cost international broadband access.

"I think public/private partnerships are a good idea,
particularly in somewhere like Ireland where lots of small
towns are not geared up to have (these networks) there,"
Mackenzie said. "But just because you have fiber rings
doesn't mean you'll have connections to homes." The Irish
government will need to think through how to stimulate the
provision of "last-mile" connections to businesses and
consumers, he said.

In an unusual move, the Irish government has appointed an
advisory committee comprised of senior technology industry
experts to supervise the broadband initiative, including the
country managers for Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. No
members were drawn from the telecommunications carriers.

Committee member Dr. Chris Horn, the founder and chairman
of Irish multinational software company Iona Technologies,
said, "In a relatively small economy, there may not be the
economies of scale to roll out broadband, so some coupling
of public and private incentives may be necessary."

Horn, who has authored a detailed study
(http://www.dubchamber.ie/Dublin%20as%20a%20World%20Class%20eCity.pdf)
that benchmarks Dublin against other global "e-cities," said the
basic model for the Irish initiative is "a network on whose
fiber any carrier can have access by, in essence, paying rent."

O'Rourke said the Irish government was not yet sure whether
the second and third phases of the build-out would be entirely
government-funded or would involve another public/private
partnership. "That will depend on how we see the initial 19
towns going. Eventually a pattern will emerge."

The broadband ring announcement comes on the heels of the
publication of a report by another advisory panel, Ireland's
Advisory Committee on Information and Communications
Technology. Released last week, the report noted that the
government risked "squandering" its high international profile
in the information technology area if it did not address
problems such as lack of domestic broadband access.

The committee, established by O'Rourke, includes several
American technology industry leaders such as former Qwest
Vice Chairman Brian Thompson. The report advocates
establishing an independently managed revolving fund to
support the rollout of broadband services to homes and small
to medium-size businesses. Capital payments could be made
over a 10-year period, and interest could be structured to
encourage a swift rollout.

***********************************
Andy Carvin
Senior Associate
Benton Foundation

acarvin at benton.org
http://www.benton.org
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
***********************************