Irish Broadband: Planning, Infrastructure and Benefits

Irish Broadband: Planning, Infrastructure and Benefits

Winner of the Microsoft Award for Excellence

James J. Keane

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Limerick Institute of Technology for the degree of Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Business Computing 2008

Department of Information Technology Limerick Institute of Technology

April 2008

Abstract

Mankind is producing vast amounts of information. This has led the present era to be described as the information age. This information is represented in text, image, audio, and video formats. It is presented in the printed, radio and television media.

People have shown an urgency in wanting to access this information with much greater speed. They also want to interact immediately with this real-time information. The Internet has taken up this challenge.

This has been the impetus for this dissertation, accessing information on the Internet with greater speed. More precisely, this dissertation will examine the benefits to Ireland of utilising Broadband in accessing the Internet. It will outline to concerned stakeholders the relevant technologies to deploy in the varying geographical locations throughout Ireland. In justifying that it will show the current and forecasted Internet usage. The associated costs and benefits will also be quantified. It examines the benefits to Ireland of a collaborative approach to building the Broadband infrastructure.

The secondary research unveiled the most current writings from the scientific community, public bodies and private enterprise. Primary research entailed administrating two questionnaires, one to IT experts and the other to non-national users in Ireland. The experts gave a fruitful account of current and future Irish broadband usage. Non-nationals were chosen because they are high end users and offered a model of what future Irish usage might be like.

ii

The rollout of Broadband in Ireland happened later than the rest of Western Europe.

When Irish people were offered a competitively priced Broadband penetration rates rose. They corresponded very similarly to other European countries. People have and are continuing to migrate from dialup to Broadband where they are offered it. Greater Broadband availability means greater connectivity by the public. Research has shown that when increased services are offered on the Internet people will use them if greater Broadband speeds are offered.

Eircom is the incumbent telecom. They have shown a reluctance to positively respond to calls from both the Irish and European Parliaments to collaborate with other Broadband Service Providers. Since Eircom have moved from that entrenched position to unbundling the local loop Broadband has become available and affordable to the Irish consumer. It continues to be rolled out in the commercially viable parts of Ireland by private enterprise. The Irish Government has planned similar action in disadvantaged regions. Since the rollout of the Broadband infrastructure is expensive further cooperation by all providers is necessary in the developing and sharing of it.

The Broadband infrastructure can choose from six basic technologies. Fibre optic cable is replacing telephone copper wire. Though it offers the greatest speeds it is only feasible in urban areas. A second option in urban areas is hybrid fibre coaxial which is offered by the cable television companies. In rural areas Broadband fixed wireless access is the premium choice. In some situations telephone copper wire may be on offer for Broadband access.

iii

In remote rural areas the principal options would be either satellite or Broadband fixed wireless access. But it most likely will be a hybrid of a number of the above technologies. The Broadband user on the move can connect through Wi-Fi hotspots in publicly accessible places for free. The better choice would be the use of 3G technology which has similar coverage to the mobile phone service.

While the rollout of the optimal Broadband infrastructure in Ireland would cost in the region of €3.6 billion from 2007 to 2010 there would be a net annual benefit of between €1.1 and €1.9 billion.

iv

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people who have helped and supported me in the completion of my dissertation. Their moral support and academic guidance were invaluable.

Firstly, I would like to thank Maria Oâ€&#x;Brien for her help and support throughout the year. She was instrumental in helping me to choose this dissertation topic and giving me the initial impetus in what aspects of it to choose.

Michael Ryan was always there to give me good counsel as I explored the topic and wrote each of the chapters.

Many non-nationals and IT experts completed questionnaires in support of primary research for this dissertation.

To these people, my family and friends I express my appreciation to you all for the backing and encouragement you gave me. Thanks to Catherine Oâ€&#x;Sullivan, UL lecturer, and Lynda Wisley, nurse, for proofreading this dissertation. Your efforts have propelled me to completing this dissertation. This document is a witness to all that work. Once again a heartfelt thanks from me to you.

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Table of Contents 1

2

Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1

Aim.................................................................................................................... 2

1.2

Objectives .......................................................................................................... 2

1.3

Research Methodology...................................................................................... 2

1.4

Outline of Dissertation ...................................................................................... 4

Current and Potential Usage of the Internet in Ireland ............................................. 8 2.1

Introduction ....................................................................................................... 8

2.2

Current Household Internet Usage .................................................................... 9

2.2.1

Irish households with a home computer and an Internet connection ........ 9

2.2.2

Internet usage by persons aged 16-74 years, and frequency ................... 11

2.2.3

Internet usage by persons according to their Economic Status ............... 12

2.2.4

Purposes of using of the Internet ............................................................. 13

2.2.5

Changing use of the Internet ................................................................... 14

2.2.6

Locations of Internet usage ..................................................................... 15

2.2.7

County analysis of Internet usage ........................................................... 16

2.3

Current Business Internet Usage ..................................................................... 18

2.3.1

Irish businesses with computer and Internet connections ....................... 19

2.3.2

Purposes of using of the Internet (as a consumer) .................................. 20

2.3.3

Purposes of using the Internet (as a provider) ......................................... 20

2.3.4

Use of E-commerce for purchases and sales ........................................... 22

2.4

Primary research with Foreign Nationals and Experts .................................... 23

2.5

Future Irish Internet usage .............................................................................. 27

2.5.1

Contrasting current Irish and International usage of the Internet ........... 27

2.5.2

Future of Irish Internet ............................................................................ 29 vi

2.6 3

Summary ......................................................................................................... 34

Strategic Planning for Broadband Development .................................................... 37 3.1

Introduction ..................................................................................................... 37

3.2

European Union Governance .......................................................................... 38

3.2.1

EU policy ................................................................................................ 38

3.2.2

EU talks about Irish Broadband .............................................................. 40

3.3

4

Irish Government ............................................................................................ 41

3.3.1

National Development Plan (NDP) 2000-2006 ...................................... 45

3.3.2

Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) .................................................... 46

3.3.3

BMW Pilot Wireless Internet Service ..................................................... 47

3.3.4

Group Broadband Scheme (GBS) ........................................................... 48

3.3.5

National Development Plan (NDP) 2007-2013 ...................................... 50

3.3.6

National Broadband Scheme (NBS) ....................................................... 52

3.3.7

Home Computing Initiative (HCI) .......................................................... 53

3.3.8

Criticisms of Government on Broadband ............................................... 53

3.4

Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) .............................. 56

3.5

Competition ..................................................................................................... 58

3.6

Summary ......................................................................................................... 61

Proposed Broadband Infrastructural Architecture .................................................. 64 4.1

Introduction ..................................................................................................... 64

4.2

Overview ......................................................................................................... 64

4.3

Three-Tier Hierarchical Internet Infrastructure .............................................. 66

4.4

Tier-3 ............................................................................................................... 72

4.4.1

Satellite.................................................................................................... 72

4.4.2

Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BFWA) .......................................... 74

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4.4.3

3G cellular technology ............................................................................ 77

4.4.4

Wi-Fi ....................................................................................................... 79

4.4.5

Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) ................................................................... 83

4.4.6

Copper/Fibre ........................................................................................... 85

4.5

Proposed Broadband Architecture .................................................................. 89

4.5.1

Users in Remote Rural Areas .................................................................. 90

4.5.2

Users in Populated Rural Areas .............................................................. 91

4.5.3

Users in Urban Areas .............................................................................. 91

4.5.4

Users on the Move .................................................................................. 92

4.6 5

Summary ......................................................................................................... 93

Economic Benefits of Broadband Availability ....................................................... 96 5.1

Introduction ..................................................................................................... 96

5.2

Preamble to Cost Benefit Analysis ................................................................. 96

5.2.1

Sources of data ........................................................................................ 96

5.2.2

Approach and Background...................................................................... 97

5.2.3

NPV Cost-benefit Ratio .......................................................................... 99

5.3

Costs .............................................................................................................. 100

5.3.1

Ingredients of Costing ........................................................................... 100

5.3.2

Cost of providing Broadband ................................................................ 101

5.4

6

Benefits ......................................................................................................... 101

5.4.1

Background to Calculating Benefits ..................................................... 101

5.4.2

Calculating the Financial Benefits of Broadband ................................. 103

5.5

Breakdown .................................................................................................... 106

5.6

Summary ....................................................................................................... 107

Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 108

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7

6.1

Forecasting usage .......................................................................................... 108

6.2

Strategic Plan ................................................................................................ 111

6.3

Proposing an infrastructural plan .................................................................. 114

6.4

Quantifying Net Benefit ................................................................................ 116

6.5

Further Research ........................................................................................... 117

Reference Material ..................................................................................................... i 7.1

Appendices ......................................................................................................... i

7.2

Abbreviations .................................................................................................. xv

7.3

Glossary ........................................................................................................xvii

7.4

References ...................................................................................................xxvii

7.5

Bibliography............................................................................................... xxxvi

8

Index ......................................................................................................................xlvi

9

Disclaimer .......................................................................................................... xlviii

ix

List of Tables

Table 2.1 ICT usage in Leitrim and Dublin .................................................................... 16 Table 2.2 Business connections to the Internet ............................................................... 19 Table 2.3 Download times for different data items......................................................... 30 Table 2.4 Broadband Generation Speeds ........................................................................ 31 Table 4.1 Cost of WiMax ................................................................................................ 77 Table 4.2 Cost of cable television Broadband services................................................... 84 Table 5.1 Availability and Take up of Broadband in Ireland ......................................... 98 Table 5.2 Estimated cost of providing Broadband in Objective 1 regions (Euro million). ......................................................................................................................................... 98 Table 5.3 Discounted Costs, Benefits, Net Benefits (millions â‚Ź) for Europe ................. 99 Table 5.4 NPV cost-benefit ratio .................................................................................... 99 Table 5.5 Spread of Expenditure on Technologies. ...................................................... 101 Table 5.6 It will yield a net benefit of â‚Ź1.9 billion over the 6 years of expenditure. .... 104 Table 5.7 Economic benefit of Broadband rollout. ....................................................... 105 Table 5.8 Urban/Rural Costs, Benefits, and Net Benefits (Euro millions) ................... 106 Table 5.9 Cost benefit analysis per subscriber. ............................................................. 107

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List of Illustrations

Figure 2.1 Irish households with a home computer and an Internet connection .............. 9 Figure 2.2 Regional households with a home computer and an Internet connection ..... 10 Figure 2.3 Internet usage by persons aged 16-74 years .................................................. 11 Figure 2.4 Use of the Internet in the previous three months, classified by frequency, and location ............................................................................................................................ 12 Figure 2.5 Internet usage by persons according to their Principal Economic Status ...... 13 Figure 2.6 Activities on the Internet ............................................................................... 14 Figure 2.7 Changing use of the Internet .......................................................................... 14 Figure 2.8 Locations of Internet usage ............................................................................ 15 Figure 2.9 Purposes of using the Internet (as consumer) ................................................ 20 Figure 2.10 Purposes of using the Internet (as provider) ................................................ 21 Figure 2.11 Use of e-commerce for purchases and sales ................................................ 22 Figure 2.12 Broadband use by non-nationals living in Ireland ....................................... 24 Figure 2.13 Irish Forecasted Broadband connectivity from 2008-2013 ......................... 33 Figure 4.1 Three tier national Broadband structure ........................................................ 67 Figure 4.2 MANs, Group Broadband Scheme, and ESB Fibre Networks ...................... 70 Figure 4.3 Hybrid Fibre Coaxial ..................................................................................... 83 Figure 4.4 Plan A – Current Network ............................................................................. 87 Figure 4.5 Plan B – Proposed Network........................................................................... 87 Figure 4.6 Forecasted Technology Mix .......................................................................... 90 Figure 5.1 Operating costs as a percentage of Capital Expenditure. ............................ 100

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Chapter 1

Introduction

1 Introduction The New Year opened with Matt Cooper of Today FM asking Senator Shane Ross, “Can we afford to install fibre a infrastructure to give greater Broadband speeds?” with a curt response he said, “We cant afford not to do it.” (Cooper, M. and Ross, S. 2008).

This is a summation of where the Irish debate is at in relation to further developing the Internet. It is also central to the study for this dissertation. While Internet had been about connecting computers all around the world it is now synonymous with Broadband, both in the popular and academic minds.

Now that millions of computers have been connected the issue has moved on to transferring greater volumes of data with greater speed between those connected computers. It is this move from the narrowband of a copper telephone wire to a Broadband connection that has permitted more data to travel with greater speed.

Though the technological means to achieve this is present the human determination and financial backing is somewhat circumspect. The different stakeholders need reassurance that there is a need for Broadband, that the Government will judiciously oversee the rollout of Broadband, and that there will be a profitable financial return on investment in Broadband. This dissertation offers answers to these issues. It also maps out a way on methods of collaborating between Service Providers and Government.

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Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Aim The aim of this dissertation is to evaluate the benefits to Ireland of further developing quality Broadband availability.

Broadband was selected as the topic for analysis in this dissertation as it is a new technology that is being currently developed and rolled out in Ireland and throughout the world. The rationale for its study is to inform Broadband infrastructural investors of where to deploy the relevant technologies in rolling out Broadband. Commensurate with this information the associated costs and benefits will be calculated.

1.2 Objectives The main objectives of this dissertation are as follows:

1. To evaluate current and potential consumersâ€&#x; usage of the Internet in Ireland.

2. To assess political, legal, administrative and economic needs.

3. To evaluate current and future Internet infrastructural needs.

4. To explore the economic costs of Broadband provision.

5. To assess the benefits of Broadband availability.

1.3 Research Methodology The aim of this dissertation has both national and international significance. Since it is of global importance it has focused the minds of government, private enterprise, acclaimed consultants, and public institutions to address this issue with comprehensive

2

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Introduction

research. Amongst these is the revered European Space Agency. The fruits of these prestigious researchers has been used as secondary research in this dissertation.

Initially it involved reading a standard text book and informal interviews with IT lecturers to gain a clear understanding of the many and varied hardware and software Internet technologies. Since this topic has only entered the public arena in the present decade current research is imperative. The required information was sourced from published quarterly reports, journals, IT magazines, newspaper articles and trusted websites.

In order to expand, support, and consolidate the findings from the secondary sources primary research was undertaken.

He administered a questionnaire to a test group for effectiveness in fulfilling its purpose. After that it was distributed to the random sample group of one hundred foreign nationals. They were chosen because anecdotally it was believed they were high end users using Broadband for Skype telephone calls and foreign TV channels. There is a growing number of foreign nationals in Ireland. By studying their needs it was believed that they could be a suitable model for future Irish household usage. The research will also show if their needs are being met by the current the Broadband infrastructure.

Similar preparatory work was carried out before administering another questionnaire to seven Broadband / telecommunication experts. This was also coupled with random informal interviews with pertinent IT staff. They were selected as an introductory

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Introduction

platform before the study was initiated. Their contributions gave a solid foundation and proper focus to the ensuing work.

1.4 Outline of Dissertation People are living in a global village that is shrinking in size and growing in knowledge.

They live in a knowledge economy that places a premium on speedy access to that vast reservoir of information. They have become nomadic and cosmopolitan needing perpetual access to the Internet because of its low cost. They expect a response that is speedy, secure and of satisfactory quality. In short, people are demanding mobility and versatility. What was said in the early days of the mobile phone can be said of the Internet, “It connects people, not places”.

The aim of this dissertation is basically to calculate the net benefit of further developing the roll out of Broadband. Initially, this requires forecasting the future usage of Broadband in both rural and urban Ireland by householders and businesses. This will require a detailed analysis of figures compiled by the Information Society Commission for Ireland. It reveals statistical analysis of Internet and Broadband under a number of different parameters. These parameters are age, geographical areas, content of downloads, locations for use, economic status of users, purpose and frequency of use.

This forecast will be achieved by examining: 

Changing and growing Broadband usage trends in Ireland since its roll-out.



Inadequacies with current Broadband provision in Ireland.



International trends.



International forecasting studies of Broadband usage.

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Introduction

These patterns will be contrasted against best practice internationally for divergences.

From this a forecast of Irish usage will be predicted. Primary research will be conducted to verify forecasted findings from the above endeavours.

After forecasting the future usage of Broadband there is a need to examine the stakeholders who will be directly instrumental in delivering the service. They can broadly be categorised as either the public sector or private sector. The public sector generally regulates Broadband provision, while the private sector constructs and develops it.

The public sector includes the European Commission, the Irish Government, Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (DCMNR), and the communications regulator, ComReg. Each of the main players in the public sector will be examined separately. This examination will highlight the directives that are emanating from the EU Commission.

The Irish Government has produced legislation and National Development Plans. They have also funded and sponsored infrastructural development and coordinated the planning of Broadband rollout among members of the private sector. The astuteness of their efforts in planning and the profitability of their financial investments will be critiqued. Finally the effectiveness of ComReg as a regulator will be explored.

The contribution of the different private sector stakeholders to the provision of Broadband in Ireland will be examined separately. The study will comment on their ability to work together, especially with the incumbent Eircom, but also with the

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Chapter 1

Introduction

Governmentâ€&#x;s initiatives. Their ability to integrate their infrastructural plans and technologies would create a synergy. An increased synergy would greatly enhance the quality of Broadband and the speed at which it is provided. This will create an increased possibility of greater competition, resulting in cheaper Broadband for the consumer.

Growing usersâ€&#x; needs require this to happen.

Once the overall plans by the Service Providers have been strategically formulated then the appropriate technology must be chosen to meet the usersâ€&#x; needs that have already been documented. Providing Broadband service could be best done if all Broadband users were living in densely populated areas. This would then make it financially viable to rollout the optimal connection to the consumer. Unfortunately, this is not the reality in Ireland. Consumers are living both in urban and sparsely populated rural areas with rugged terrain.

A number of different technologies have to be deployed in a cost effective manner to rollout Broadband to all consumers. These technologies vary from the highly priced satellites in outer space to the humble phone line. Though it makes financial sense for private enterprise to invest in urban areas it would appear from international practice this is not always viable in rural areas. In those situations the Broadband service is sponsored by public finance. This study will look at the needs of the mobile Broadband user as well as the static user at home or in the office.

The focus in drawing up the appropriate infrastructural architecture will be connecting the consumer with the world wide Internet. This entails a connection back to the exchange. This also involves interconnecting exchanges throughout the country.

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Introduction

International interconnectivity will also be discussed since Ireland is a small island country. For that reason the ability to transport large volumes of data to and from Ireland is of extreme importance.

The net benefit from the provision of Broadband services is paramount to the Service Providers as well as Ireland and the Broadband consumer. The cost of rolling out Broadband is expected to be in the billions of Euros. Investors demand a return on their investment. This will be greatest in urban areas but fall dramatically in rural areas.

Investors need to be able to quantify the return they will receive by deploying suitable technologies in the different areas of Ireland.

If the Broadband needs of consumers are growing throughout Ireland then a suitable technology needs to be rolled out to satisfy their needs. Through collaboration amongst the Service Providers and public sector a strategic plan can be developed. This offers the possibility of an adequately and competitively priced Broadband service to the consumer.

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Chapter 2

Current and Future Usage

2 Current and Potential Usage of the Internet in Ireland 2.1 Introduction Fundamental to fulfilling the aim of this dissertation, calculating the net benefits of rolling out Broadband, is enumerating the future Broadband usage in Ireland. The study will begin by calculating current usage in European countries and Ireland. This chapter will seek to reveal what kind of Internet connection people are favouring, who is using it, where they are using it, for what purpose, and from what location. Those results will be coupled with other secondary research and primary research in order to forecast future usage in Ireland.

Statistics up to the year 2006 are only used because they are the most recent ones to be fully completed when this study began. What the reader should take from them is the underlining trend that runs throughout all of them, namely greater Internet usage. These trends from secondary research will be supported by current primary research that underpin them.

When reading the statistics for Broadband usage it must be remembered that Ireland is about 18 to 24 months behind most of the EU for a number of reasons, principally a delay in the launch of competitive Broadband (DCMNR, 2006).

This chapter begins by examining the current Irish Internet usage in the household market and then the business environment. It will analyse this against the findings of primary research and PriceWaterhouseCoopers forecasts. From this work all the future usage of Broadband will be forecast.

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Current and Future Usage

2.2 Current Household Internet Usage Much of this section, Current Household Internet Usage, relies heavily on data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Tables of statistics were analysed from two of its published books: “Information Society and Telecommunications – 2005”; and “Information Society and Telecommunications – 2006”. Other sources are cited locally.

2.2.1 Irish households with a home computer and an Internet connection In February 2006, 867,500 households had a home computer out of a total of 1,299,400 Irish households. This represented 58.5% of households compared with 32.5% in 2000 i.e. 26% increase in household ownership of a computer in six years. This is represented in Figure 2.1 below.

Figure 2.1 Irish households with a home computer and an Internet connection

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2006)

The percentage of all households that are connected to the Internet has risen from 20.5% in 2000 to 48.7% in 2006 i.e. 28.2% increase of households (Figure 2.1). The percentage of all households with home computers that are connected to the Internet has

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Current and Future Usage

risen from 63.0% to 83.3% in the same six year time span i.e. 20.3% increase of households with computers (Figure 2.1). Thatâ€&#x;s a consistent figure throughout Ireland.

As the number of household computers rose so too didthe number of households connecting to the Internet increase since 2000. During that period, household computer ownership rose by 32.5% while Internet connections rose by 28.2%. Those figures show that increased purchase of home computers is inextricably linked to increased Internet connections regardless of whether it is examined on a national or regional basis (Figure 2.2).

Figure 2.2 Regional households with a home computer and an Internet connection

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2006)

There is a higher purchase of computers and consequently higher Internet connections in the Southern and Eastern region than in the Border, Midland, and Western region (Figure 2.2). It is not coincidental that this happened as there was a greater rollout of Broadband in the Southern and Eastern region in those years, 2003-2006. Thus, the marginal utility of the computer has greatly increased with the advent of the Internet,

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Current and Future Usage

and more especially with the increased rollout of nationwide Broadband in 2003. The growth in the purchase of home computers and rollout of quality Broadband are incessantly feeding off each other.

2.2.2 Internet usage by persons aged 16-74 years, and frequency The age groups 16-24 years are proportionately the largest users of the Internet, varying from 55% of that age group in 2004 to 62% in 2006 (Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3 Internet usage by persons aged 16-74 years

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2005/2006)

The converse is true when examining the greatest increases in Internet usage between 2004 and 2006 with the older age groups showing the highest increases. There is an increase in Internet usage in the groups 45-54 years is 32%, 55-64 years is 44%, and 6574 is 63%.

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Current and Future Usage

This could be accounted for to some extent by the Back to Education Initiative (BTEI) undertaken by the Government which the author has been instrumental in delivering.

This Initiative targets groups that are Social Welfare recipients who are in need of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training which they receive free of charge due to State funding.

Internet users are moving away from infrequent usage i.e. once a month or less often (Figure 2.4). They are using it at least weekly or more often daily. Their daily usage in 2006 was at 31%, having increased 73% since 2003.

Figure 2.4 Use of the Internet in the previous three months, classified by frequency, and location

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2005/2006)

2.2.3 Internet usage by persons according to their Economic Status Every occupational group is showing an increase in the use of the Internet. This is illustrated in (Figure 2.5) below.

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Figure 2.5 Internet usage by persons according to their Principal Economic Status

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2005/2006)

Workers and students are proportionately the greatest group of Internet users in the years 2004-2006, with 69% and 54% of them respectively using it in 2006. Conversely, the greatest increases in Internet usage are by the Unemployed, Home duties, and Retired people, with each group of users rising by 80%, 50%, and 49% respectively between 2004 and 2006.

2.2.4 Purposes of using of the Internet In 2006, the principal uses of the Internet were sending and receiving e-mails, finding information about goods and services, travel and accommodation, obtaining information about web sites, and Internet banking. What is remarkable is that the associated figures have shown increases of between 41% and 76% in the number of people using the Internet for the above reasons from 2004 to 2006. See Figures 2.6 and 2.7 below.

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Figure 2.6 Activities on the Internet

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2005/2006)

2.2.5 Changing use of the Internet The greatest increases in the use of the Internet occurred between 2005 and 2006. They include selling goods and services which show a 354% increase. This is followed by looking for a job/sending job applications, web radio/web television, other (use of chat sites etc.), downloading software, and telephone/video conferencing. These activities have shown increases varying from 66% to 108% (see figure 2.7 below).

Figure 2.7 Changing use of the Internet

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2005/2006) 14

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Current and Future Usage

There are two main items that can be taken from these statistics for this dissertation.

Firstly, commercial use of the Internet is growing rapidly. Secondly, some of the growing uses of the Internet are web radio/web television, downloading software, and telephone/video conferencing. This latter group of Internet utilities have higher data volumes and require large bandwidth. These two issues will have a huge impact on the future infrastructure of the Internet in Ireland which will be discussed in Chapter 4.

2.2.6 Locations of Internet usage The home and place of work are by far the most favoured locations that users choose to access the Internet (see Figure 2.8 below). They have also shown the greatest increases, 39% and 35% respectively, between 2003 and 2006.

Figure 2.8 Locations of Internet usage

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2006)

This highligths two key pieces of information for Internet infrastructural developers.

The use of the Internet has seriously infeltrated the two places that people inhabit most.

Secondly, users have respondedly positively to the introduction of Broadband in these

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Current and Future Usage

locations. Later in this chapter and in Chapter 4 this study examines if there is a need for a more suitable infrastructure to be rolled out to these places to meet the growing demand.

2.2.7 County analysis of Internet usage Arguably, if there were more quality Broadband connections available throughout Ireland then there would be more household computers bought and more Broadband connections made. This assertion is based on the following facts. Dublin and Leitrim in 2006 are the 2 extremes with regard to Broadband connections because of the differing Broadband infrastructures. Dublin stands out on its own with 53% household connectivity to the Broadband network with Leitrim at 15.8%. Dublin is the only county to have more Broadband connections than non-Broadband connections. By looking more closely one sees that 79% of the Leitrim households with computers connect to the Internet compared with 85% in Dublin as shown in Table 2.1. Even though Leitrim households have poorer quality Internet connectivity they are almost as eager to connect to the Internet as Dublin households.

County

% of households % of PC owners % of PC owners with PC with Internet with Broadband

Dublin

61%

85%

53%

Leitrim

49%

79%

16%

Table 2.1 ICT usage in Leitrim and Dublin

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2006) This is a call for increased rollout of Broadband in Leitrim. The utility value of the computer has increased with the advent of the Internet, and more especially with the rollout of Broadband. It should follow that the availability of Broadband in Leitrim

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would increase the sale of computers in that county. The increased presence of Broadband and computers would also increase Internet connectivity.

After doing a comparative study of ICT statistics for 2006 the following deductions were made. The national average of 57% reflects the number of Irish private households, in permanent housing, owning a personal computer. 14 of the 26 counties are within 5% of the national average. Figures for individual counties fluctuate from 48% to 65%. The highest PC ownership was in Dublin and its three surrounding counties, with the lowest in the Border, Midlands, and Western (BMW) counties. The desire for PCs is similar throughout the country. The counties with lowest PC ownership have also the lowest levels of Broadband rollout.

The national average for households with PCs that are connected to the Internet is 82%.

The highest Internet connectivity is in Dublin but only 3% higher than the national average. Throughout the State all counties are within 5% of the national average except for one county. PC owners throughout Ireland have almost all the same level of connectivity to the Internet.

The highest percentage of people that own PCs is in the Dublin hinterland with a slight drop as one moves away from the capital. It is a similar situation when one examines Internet connectivity. Figures contrast very sharply when one examines Broadband connectivity as one moves away from the Dublin hinterland.

When the figures for Broadband connections are examined there is a much different picture displayed. The national average is 20% for private household connectivity

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fluctuating from 8% to 32%. The counties with the highest Broadband connection are Dublin and its neighbouring counties with the BMW counties with the lowest. Even though the ownership of PCs throughout the State varies little these figures disclose that the number of Broadband connections vary hugely.

When Broadband connectivity is contrasted with PC ownership the following is revealed. 35% of households in the Republic that own computers are connected to the Broadband. What is most noticeable is the disparity in the individual counties. Dublin stands out on its own with 53% household connectivity to Broadband. It falls to 15.8% for Leitrim. The Ulster 3 counties i.e. Donegal, Monaghan, and Cavan, and Connacht have 19% and 25% connectivity respectively. Putting it another way, for every ten households with PCs, two have Broadband connectivity in the Ulster 3 counties and Connacht while there are five households with Broadband connectivity in Dublin.

What is noticeable about Ireland is the number of households with Internet connections are growing rapidly. Between the second quarter of 2004 and the corresponding quarter of 2005 it rose from 658,100 to 718,000 i.e. a 9% increase. The number of metered dialup Internet subscribers dropped from 595,000 to 542,000, i.e. 9% decrease, for the same period. It is reasonable to deduce that these subscribers moved from the dial-up to Broadband. A full county analysis is depicted in tabular form in Appendix A.

2.3 Current Business Internet Usage This section, Current Business Internet Usage, relies heavily on data from the Central Statistics Office. Tables of statistics were analysed from two of its published books:

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“Information Society and Telecommunications – 2005”; and “Information Society and Telecommunications – 2006”. Other sources are cited locally.

2.3.1 Irish businesses with computer and Internet connections Almost all enterprises use computers in today‟s Ireland: 99% in industry, 95% in construction and 96% in services. The majority use e-mail and Internet i.e. 93% of enterprises. 64% of enterprises stated that they have published a website. The number of businesses, who had 10 or more employees, using dial-up had shrunk from 35% in 2004 to 25% in 2006. There is potential for migragation by more businesses from dial-up to Broadband.

There is clear evidence from Table 2.2 below that businesses are making the transition from dial-up to Broadband and wireless connectivity. Enterprises may have more than one Internet connection.

Type of external connection to the Internet

2004 2005 2006 % % %

Modem (dial-up)

35

26

25

Integrated services digital network (ISDN)

39

32

31

Broadband

33

49

61

6

8

14

Wireless connection Table 2.2 Business connections to the Internet

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2006)

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2.3.2 Purposes of using of the Internet (as a consumer) Undoubtedly, the Internet is used for economic purposes by businesses. The three main reasons that Irish businesses used the Internet in 2006 were: (1) Information search, (2) Banking and financial services, and (3) Market monitoring (Figure 2.9).

Figure 2.9 Purposes of using the Internet (as consumer)

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2006)

2.3.3 Purposes of using the Internet (as a provider) The three main reasons Irish businesses provided a website in 2006 were: (1) Marketing the enterpriseâ€&#x;s products, (2) Facilitating access to product catalogues and price lists, and (3) Providing after sales support. See (Figure 2.10).

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Figure 2.10 Purposes of using the Internet (as provider)

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2006)

More and more business systems are being connected to electronic information systems.

Indications are showing that more of these systems are being connected to the intranet and Internet. This facilitates E-commerce between businesses in such a way that their systems can interface with one another without human intervention. This facilitates greater speed and accuracy.

These business systems are also interfacing with the retailer e.g. Tescos for weekly shopping, Dell for the purchase of a computer, and RyanAir to purchase a flight. These systems give current and accurate information which the customer can access anywhere and at anytime.

While there is a growing use of Internet by the business community the applications currently used by enterprises are not data laden. Even though they are commercially viable they do not demand wide bandwidth.

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2.3.4 Use of E-commerce for purchases and sales There is a moderate increase in the total value of purchases and sales by Irish businesses. When examined more closely the associated statistics are fairly static. This could be explained by more companies not offering goods on the Internet. See (Figure 2.11) below.

Figure 2.11 Use of e-commerce for purchases and sales

(Statistics sourced from: CSO, 2006)

Even though there is a moderate increase in the value of purchases by businesses the percentage of purchases for 2005 and 2006 remained at 10%. The number of businesses that used E-commerce for purchases rose slightly from 57% to 59% between 2005 and 2006. This accounted for 10% of their total purchases.

It is a similar picture for sales. While there is a modest increase in the value of sales the percentage of sales by businesses for 2005 and 2006 dropped from 29% to 28%.

Between 2005 and 2006, there was also a fall from 20% to 17% in the number of businesses who used E-commerce for sales. The presence of very large multinationals in

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Ireland continues to affect these figures. 30% of enterprises had E-commerce websites.

This accounted for 21% of their total turnover.

In 2006, half of businesses felt that their products were not suitable for sale on the Internet. 60% of businesses believed that customers were not ready to use Internet for commerce. Over 60% believed that security issues concerning payments were a barrier to E-commerce. By promoting the use of secure Internet usage these perceptions can be quelled.

2.4 Primary research with Foreign Nationals and Experts According to the ISO9000 standard software users require effectiveness, meaning that it does what is expected of it, efficiency, meaning that it does it in a productive manner, and that the users also derive satisfaction from its utilisation. This study sought this information from foreign nationals with regard to their use of the Internet.

The random sample group consisted of 100 foreign nationals who responded to a questionnaire surveying their use of the Internet. The ratio of male to female was 40:60.

Almost all were living in Ireland for the last 5 years or less. Their home of origin was equally divided between Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. 90% were aged between 16 and 34 years of age. 80% of them had access to a PC in their Irish residence and access to the Internet through Broadband. All the connections were either 1 or 2 Mbps, except for 5% who had speeds of 6Mbps. The remainder connected to the Internet in college or at the Internet CafĂŠ.

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The kernel of this primary research was to ascertain the frequency, purpose of Internet usage by non-nationals and their satisfaction levels with it. 75% accessed the Internet for an average of 3.25 hours daily. Figure 2.12 below shows what percentage of the sample use Broadband to receive six different services.

Use of the Internet by Non-nationals 60 50 50 40

%

40 30

30

30 20

15 10

10 0 Music

Skype

Chat

TV

Video

Games

Figure 2.12 Broadband use by non-nationals living in Ireland

This survey was keenly interested to find out the level of usage for Skype Internet phone and television over Broadband because they make heavy data demands on an infrastructure. While 40% of the sample uses Skype, 75% of them use it at least once a week. Nearly all the 30% of the sample that use Broadband to watch global television do so on a daily basis.

55% were currently very satisfied with their Broadband service. This high level of satisfaction is supported by a number of IT experts that were surveyed. “Very little existing web functionality requires more than 2Mbps to operate effectively�, said one.

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But it could be argued that if they were exposed to and developed a need for innovative data greedy services or higher speeds then their current satisfaction might drop.

Eircom chairman, Pierre Danon states that the traditional copper wires are too small and too slow for the future capacities and speeds that will be needed. He is advocating a network of fibre optic cables. By implication, he is expecting the volume of data moving across Irish Internet lines to vastly increase. For example, he sees a migration by people from conventional phone calls to web calls (Dempsey, N. 2007). In support of this statement there is a huge take up of Skype by those with Broadband Internet for the making of international calls.

A questionnaire was sent to experts in the field of Broadband from both the private and public sectors e.g. Shannon Development, Eircom, IT commentators and consultants.

Their focus looked towards the future of Broadband. They are all unanimous the current Irish Broadband usage will increase. While forecasts are difficult to make they estimate that speeds of between 20 to 100 Mbps to the building will be required.

While there will be modest increases in Broadband usage by businesses the experts are inclined to think that the greatest use will be in leisure activities e.g. VOIP (phone calls over the Internet), VOD (Video on Demand), Games over the Internet, audio streaming (radio), video streaming (playing videos over the Internet), and IPTV (television over the Internet). Some businesses may have a need for video conferencing, collaboration platforms (working on some project together) and eCommerce. There are also bandwidth heavy applications that are neither conceived of or in the early stages of development e.g. holographic videoconferencing and virtual reality on-line gaming. It is

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worth noting that one respondent stated that some of these services are replicating what is already provided.

There is an infrastructural deficit if these current and future needs are to be met. The experts propose that a Next Generation Network (NGN) infrastructure rolling out fibre to the building (FTTB). There needs to be widespread open access to this by all the Service Providers. The greatest threats to this are monopolies at either national or local levels which can sometimes be based on proprietary local infrastructure. Currently, there is infrastructural competition which is hindering progress. This means that owners of Broadband infrastructure e.g. Eircom, ESB, Government are duplicating wiring around the country at huge expense. They should be sharing it amongst each other which will be examined in Chapter 3. Ideally this should move to service level competition. Irish Broadband development should be modelled on more progressive countries such as Sweden and Denmark.

Past and future fibre projects need to be integrated together especially the MANs project. There is a call for both public and private sector investment particularly in low population density areas. The view was also offered that most of the infrastructural investment should come from the State, or even buy back the present infrastructure from Eircom.

The experts believed that wireless hotspots in urban areas were useful but not as a long term solution. Many benefits will accrue from this development especially in the fields of education, tourism and enterprise. Some of the financially profitable services that could possibly appear over Broadband are pay per view, sports downloads, film rental,

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stocks/share portfolio management, remote personal life management, online counselling, life coaching etc.

There was a dissenting voice among the experts who believed the impact of higher speed bandwidth on effective economic growth to be overestimated. Higher Broadband use and demand is more a product of economic well being rather than a driver. That issue will be challenged in Chapter 5 against a PriceWaterhouseCoopers report.

2.5 Future Irish Internet usage 2.5.1 Contrasting current Irish and International usage of the Internet

It is worth remembering that Ireland is being contrasted against the EU25; that includes all the accession states which are classed as economically underdeveloped. So when our national averages are below the EU25 averages or towards the end of that scale then it speaks very badly of Ireland.

EU25 Households in 2006 The highest percentage of households with Internet access was recorded in the Netherlands (80%), Denmark (79%), Sweden (77%) and Luxembourg (70%). The lowest levels were recorded in Lithuania and Portugal (both 35%), Hungary (32%), Slovakia (27%), and Greece (23%). Ireland was at 50%, 13th position from the top. In the EU25, 52% of households in 2006 had access to the Internet compared to 48% in 2005. Further international details in Appendix B.

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Figures for EU households show the highest Broadband penetration was in the Netherlands (66%), Denmark (63%), Finland (53%) and Sweden (51%). The lowest was in Ireland (13%), Slovakia (11%), Cyprus (12%), and Greece (4%). Ireland was ranked 22nd out of 25 countries. In the EU25, 32% had a Broadband connection to the Internet in 2006 compared to 23% in 2005. Further international details in Appendix B.

The highest percentage of individuals regularly using the Internet were recorded in Sweden (80%), Denmark (78%), the Netherlands (76%), and Finland (71%), and the lowest in Italy and Portugal (both 31%), Cyprus (29%), and Greece (23%). Nearly half of individuals (47%) in the EU25 used the Internet at least once a week in 2006, while in Ireland it was 44%, leaving us in 15th position from the top. Further international details regarding Internet usage in Appendix C.

In the EU, 73% of the 16 to 24 age group used Internet regularly. In Ireland the figure was 58%. In all other age groups Ireland matched the EU25 average and in some cases had slightly higher figures.

EU Enterprise in 2006 The highest proportion of enterprises with Internet access were recorded in Finland (99%), Denmark and Austria (both 98%), and the Netherlands (97%). Only in Poland (89%), Lithuania (88%), Cyprus (86%), and Latvia (80%) were there fewer than 90% of enterprises connected to the Internet. Ireland had 94% Internet connectivity, matching the EU25 average, leaving it in 12th place with a very high score.

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The highest levels of Broadband connectivity in EU businesses in 2006 was recorded in Sweden and Finland (both 89%), Spain (87%), and France (86%). The lowest was in Ireland (61%), Latvia (59%), Lithuania (57%), Cyprus (55%), and Poland (46%).

Three-quarters of enterprises in the EU25 had Broadband Internet access. At 61%, Ireland was ranked low in 17th place. Further connectivity details in Appendix D.

OECD in 2006 In 2006, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report said 60% of its member countriesâ€&#x; Internet users were on Broadband. It went on to say that the countries with the best speeds at the lowest prices had switched to fibre cable networks.

2.5.2 Future of Irish Internet A dial-up connection has slow download speeds and time-outs. There is also the need to log-on and log-off. This is becoming more frustrating to a demanding consumer with growing expectations. Internet usage will increase. Consumers have been demanding more services over the Internet because it is relatively cheap. This will require, at minimum, a Broadband infrastructure to be put in place for consumers. This assertion was made for the following reasons.

Inadequate for current usage: A dial-up connection is no longer accepted as a satisfactory way of connecting to the Internet, especially since users are being exposed to fast download speeds at work and college. The Table 2.3 below shows that dial-up is completely inadequate for data laden items. Nowadays, Internet users are obliged to download software updates e.g.

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Windows updates or virus software. Broadband is essential if these tasks are to be performed efficiently and satisfactorily.

According to the Eircom‟s chief technology officer, Geoff Shakespeare, the company intends to upgrade one third of its Broadband lines by 2010. This will facilitate speeds of more than four times the current highest home service. The lines are expected to carry 25 megabits per second (Weckler, 2007).

Download Speed Dial-up 1 Mb 2 Mb 3 Mb 6 Mb

Download a movie trailer (30 Mb) 74 mins, 53 secs 3 mins, 50 secs 1 min, 55 secs 1 min, 17 secs < 1 min

Photograph or large image (1 Mb) 75 secs 7 secs 3 secs 2 secs < 1 sec

Music track (5 Mb) 12 mins, 28 secs 38 secs 19 secs 12 secs 6 secs

Software download (Windows) 34 mins, 43 secs 2 mins 60 secs 40 secs < 1 min

Table 2.3 Download times for different data items

(Source: http://www.upc.ie/Internet)

Similar to the mobile phone, there is a growing need for ubiquitous access to Broadband. Suppliers are responding to this with various technologies.

Inadequate for future usage Irish Broadband users are currently hovering between first and second generation Broadband usage. Plans are in place for third generation Broadband. Table 2.4 displays its capabilities. For example, BT (UK) is offering a video service to its customers. There was a 60% take-up by new customers in the first half of 2007, even though it is more expensive (Hill, 2007). In the latter half of 2007, HomeVision was offering triple play products i.e. telephone, Internet, and television in some Dublin regions. It has already €5 million available to it, with another €40 million coming from investors as they 30

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execute their business plan, (Collins, 2007a). Again this investment would not proceed unless there was an actual need that would be financially viable to meet.

Stage

Typical Speed

Typical Application

1st Generation

256Kb/s -2Mb/s Fast Internet access

2nd Generation 2Mb/s -5Mb/s

Application Service Provider

3rd Generation

Real time video

5Mb/s -50Mb/s

Table 2.4 Broadband Generation Speeds

(Source: http://www.upc.ie/Internet) Following international trends Roll-out of Broadband in Ireland has been about 18 months behind most of the EU. There is still an expected demand that will have to be fulfilled. According to Prof. Jim Norton, University of Sheffield, in 2003, “Ireland will climb the Broadband adoption curve rapidly.” He went on to say, “New approaches could overcome the divide between town and country.”

Irish household Internet connectivity is 2% less than the EU average, but 25% less than Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark and Sweden.

The other contrasting figures with the EU is that 13% of Irish Internet connections are Broadband compared with an EU25 average of 32%, EU15 average of 48%. Irish people want Internet connections and they want them to be Broadband. They are following the trends set by the progressive Nordic countries (European Union, 2006).

Currently, there is a drop off in the use of dial-up for Internet. For the first time ever, in the first quarter of 2007, there were more Broadband than dial-up Internet users in

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Dublin. Broadband represented 58% of all Dublin Internet users. This shift is also happening around the country.

Expenditure In 2000, the OECD stated that throughout its members countries, individuals were increasingly spending more of their income on communications, than either health, education, water, electricity and gas, recreation, culture, transport, restaurants, hotels, alcohol, tobacco, narcotics, household equipment, clothing, footwear or food.

While accepting this, caution needs to be exercised. NBC, one of the three major US television networks, had episodes of their most popular shows available for download.

The total number of viewers prepared to pay the charge remained relatively low. It discontinued the service (Stanage, 2007).

Irelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Forecasted Broadband needs By 2013, it is expected that there will be 97% availability of Broadband with 74% of the households taking it up in urban areas. Rural Ireland will have 78% availability with 39% take up. After 2010, demand for services at over 10Mbps will be growing among business users (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2004: 5, 9).

There are a number of trends to be gleaned from Figure 2.13 below. There is an increasing demand for Broadband by businesses and residential households both in urban and rural Ireland. The residential users are predominantly choosing basic Internet packages with about a quarter choosing premium Broadband packages. This is supported by the findings of primary research carried out on non-nationals. The

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majority of business users will be selecting the premium packages. The primary research carried out on the IT expert group supports this finding.

The most important findings to be taken from Figure 2.13 are the numbers of residential and business subscribers, in both urban and rural Ireland, that will connect to the various Broadband speeds. These figures are essential in later chapters of the study for planning and costing the different technologies that will be deployed in providing this service.

Residential and Small & Home Office Urban Take-up

Residential Small/Home Office Rural Take-up

600 500 (,000)

(,000)

400 300 200 100 0 2008

2009

Urban <512Kbps

2010

2011

Urban 512Kbps-10Mbps

2012

180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 2008

2013

2009

Urban <512Kbps

Urban > 10Mbps

2010

2011

Urban 512Kbps-10Mbps

2012

2013

Urban > 10Mbps

SME - Rural Take-up

SME - Urban Take-up 300

250

250

200 (,000)

(,000)

200

150 100

150 100

50

50

0

0

2008 Urban <512Kbps

2009

2010

2011

Urban 512Kbps-10Mbps

2012

2013

2008 Urban <512Kbps

Urban > 10Mbps

2010

2011

Urban 512Kbps-10Mbps

2012

2013

Urban > 10Mbps

Large Enterprise - Rural Take-up

Large Enterprise - Urban take-up 1000

300

800

250

(,000)

(,000)

2009

600 400

200 150 100

200

50 0

0 2008 Urban <512Kbps

2009

2010

2011

Urban 512Kbps-10Mbps

2012

2008

2013

2009

Urban <512Kbps

Urban > 10Mbps

Figure 2.13 Irish Forecasted Broadband connectivity from 2008-2013

(Statistics sourced from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2004) 33

2010

2011

Urban 512Kbps-10Mbps

2012

2013

Urban > 10Mbps

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2.6 Summary A 2007 Irish Times‟ headline summarises this chapter very well: “Broadband market heating up.” This period in time is described as the Information Age. There is a proliferation of information. It varies from the simple text message in an email or on a webpage, through to images, sound, animation, games, videos, and live television.

Consumers want ubiquitous access to this information. They want to be able to receive it anywhere and at anytime, when and where it is convenient for them. They want it to be interactive, a two way transmission. They want all this at an affordable price. Internet is the answer. The „wireless household computer‟ is becoming synonymous with Broadband Internet connectivity.

Stakeholders in the Internet business have been taking cognisance of the demand by the consumer for a more polymorphic approach to supplying them with data. The Internet is now offering web browser of images and text, games console, telephone, radio and television.

But there‟s a fundamental question underlying this research. Where are the Irish and Europeans on the ascending curve of the Broadband life cycle? When will the Broadband life cycle peak? Answering those questions can be difficult especially when the words of Western Union in 1876 are recalled, “This „telephone‟ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” In more recent times the chairman of IBM said in 1943, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”. The response to new innovations is difficult to predict far into the future e.g. mobile phones being used for text messages.

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The line graphs displaying Internet usage in Ireland show a marked increase during the years 2004-2006 shortly after the rollout of Broadband began. As the lines stretch out across the graphs many point in a very pronounced north-easterly direction. They are showing an insatiable appetite by the Irish for more frequent Internet usage, by more people of all age groups and occupations, from more varied locations, for a greater variety of purposes and purchases with higher data download volumes. It is all taking place principally in the home and workplace. This is all happening from a backdrop of growing Broadband and falling dial-up connections. Broadband connections need to be linked into these locations.

Business use of the Internet is remaining somewhat static. With the growing number of consumers on the Internet use of business Broadband should increase. This is somewhat reliant on raising consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x; confidence in Internet security.

The statistics above only point in one direction, greater Broadband usage. But like most signposts they donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t point clearly the precise roads to take. They do not catapult planners far into the future with great precision. The further one moves away from them in time the less reliable they become.

When contrasted with the EU averages, Ireland is very similar. The one glaring statistic that jumps out is poor Broadband penetration. If this situation was remedied it would be the catalyst to augment any deficiencies in the other statistics.

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This leads to the question, can the current Irish Internet infrastructure sustain this increased demand for greater bandwidth? Chapter 4 addresses that question. Firstly, there is a need to look at how best to enable strategic planning between the Service Provider and the Government. In chapter 3, he examines the external forces affecting Broadband development particularly political factors, to see if they are supportive of capitalists investing money in developing a Broadband infrastructure.

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3 Strategic Planning for Broadband Development 3.1 Introduction Chapter 2 has looked at Internet usage in Ireland in the recent past. It concluded by forecasting increased usage in the future. It saw that Internet usage has been growing rapidly between 2003 and 2007 when Broadband access was offered to the public.

While availability has been and still is a key issue in some parts of Ireland the more burning issue now is speed and quality of service.

For that to happen there has to be the suitable political resolve and determination both at EU and national level. The other strategic partners in its development are the Irish Communications Regulator, the Service Providers, and the end users. All their interests need to be afforded the correct attention in an overall plan. This is confirmed by Irish Business and Employers Confederationâ&#x20AC;&#x;s (IBEC) Telecommunications and Internet Federation (TIF) Director who said in October 2007 that serious debate is needed to provide a clear strategy to maximise the benefit of investment in Broadband (TIF, 2007).

Users need a quality service that offers speed at a competitive price. The Service Providers want a return on their investment. But Eircom wants a return by shielding their infrastructure from use by its rival companies. The task of the Government is to create an environment where the consumerâ&#x20AC;&#x;s interests are paramount while respecting the rights and interests of the Service Providers.

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This chapter will look at the administrative input of the major stakeholders to Broadband rollout. It will look at their flawed plans by contrasting them with Sweden.

The views of expert critics will also be taken into account.

Arising from this analysis are suggestions that a strategic plan will be made in order to move Broadband development forward. These suggestions will be fed from what has already worked, what was done badly, and most importantly what the Government and its agencies should do. This will help focus on what needs to be done strategically for Broadband to flourish.

This chapter opens by looking at the contributions from the EU, followed by Irish Government plans and activities, then the role of the Irish Communications Regulator, and having competition among the Service Providers in Broadband provision.

3.2 European Union Governance 3.2.1 EU policy The European Commission has adopted a progressive stance on the following policy issues concerning Broadband across the whole of the EU: 1. Widespread availability of Broadband services.

2. Need for greater investment in Broadband.

3. Greater competition among Broadband Service Providers.

4. Strong regulatory enforcement across the EU. 5. Public funding for the development of Broadband.

6. Local loop unbundling.

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The Commission said it “actively supports the widespread availability of Broadband services” (Taylor, 2007). Their report went on to say that there is clear evidence of regional economic)benefits resulting from the deployment of increased Broadband.

In 2007, Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Telecommunications, said the opening of telecom markets to competition is one of the EU‟s success9stories with reduced prices and better services, but that competition still remains a challenge. She acknowledged that there was growth of the sector and additional investment in Broadband across Europe. While commending it she stated that it was not good enough when Europe‟s competitiveness was at stake. Competition and trade would be limited and distorted if Broadband services were not improved everywhere including outline areas (Ginty, 2007).

The Commission has always sought greater regulatory control in developing Broadband. Economic growth and consumer benefits would be enhanced if the EU moved from 25 different national9systems to a more consistent regulatory approach throughout Europe. By having greater regulation then open access onto the current infrastructure would be possible. This would increase competition amongst the Service Providers and lower prices for the consumer. European regulators started legal proceedings against Germany which passed a law favouring Deutsche Telekom. It would protect them from opening their infrastructure to rival companies. Analysts have been watching these developments with great interest. While making these criticisms the commission applauds the best performing countries like Denmark, which has high penetration rates at 30%. Holland was acclaimed for its intense competition. This

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benefits the consumer with a better level of service and lower prices (Irish Independent, 2007; Pfanner, 2007).

The European Parliament has voted to use public funding to bring Broadband into European Union‟s remote and rural regions. The Parliament called on the EU governments to ensure that hefty chunks of their annual EU grants are pumped into building key network9infrastructure. This would help to overcome the so-called digital divide that could leave much of Europe languishing far behind on critical online services. It also called on the Commission to see whether or not governments were hampering Broadband development by needlessly protecting their national markets from outside competition. More competition in this area is what it seeks (Farinone, 2007).

3.2.2 EU talks about Irish Broadband Among the Irish Government‟s legion of critics is the European Commission. They have slammed Ireland‟s poor performance in delivering Broadband Internet access (Dobson, B., Whelan, S., Reding, V. and Dunne, J., 2007). They have criticised the Government‟s MAN‟s Broadband project, as well as incumbent Eircom and the lack of powers of the regulator ComReg. The MANs, they stated, were “expensive” and that their contribution to the retail Broadband market in 2006 was marginal. According to the latest available figures, in March 2007, the Government had spent €80m activating the 27 MANs. It has only facilitated about 4,000 end users. This is a poor return from such a large investment.

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The Commission added that a faster increase in Broadband penetration appears to be held back by a lack of real9progress in Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) penetration, or access to the last mile of copper wire into9homes and businesses which is owned and controlled by Eircom.

It added that the absence of a real threat of enforcement measures has meant several obligations imposed on Eircom have not always been applied in practice (Irish Independent, 2007).

3.3 Irish Government Ireland is an island economy. This imposes limitations and competitive disadvantage if certain industries were to be developed e.g. manufacture of heavy industrial products.

The cost of transporting these products to the market would be a costly issue. For that reason the IDA chose to pursue the development of the pharmaceutical and IT industries in Ireland for the past 20 years almost. One of the reasons for this strategy was the low cost of moving the finished product from the island of Ireland to world markets.

What has this to do with the development of Broadband in Ireland? In two words, Connectivity and Government. Broadband is the cheapest form of connectivity within Ireland and also between the island of Ireland and the rest of the world. Since Ireland is a small economy it also needs to be an open economy if it is to prosper i.e. open to the rest of the world markets. Broadband is integral to having connectivity with these markets. This is further underpinned by increased globalisation.

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Secondly, the Irish Government is charged with the overall responsibility of governing our economy. It sets the environmental parameters for the economy. But it also creates, and promotes the necessary infrastructure to enhance it. It has been a Government deficiency not to embed Broadband policy more strategically within its overall plans.

By contrasting its efforts with Sweden, where there is excellent Broadband coverage, a more suitable model for Broadband development can be used.

Sweden developed their IT policy within the general industrial policy. To successfully progress, the Government‟s IT Policy Strategy Group set up a working group on IT infrastructure and Broadband. They had to work within the following established framework: free market, future-proof, accessible, competition neutral and technology neutral. By working within these benchmarks they believed that the proposed Broadband infrastructure would be capable of meeting the challenges of the future.

The outspoken Senator Shane Ross (Seanad Eireann) has been critical of the Irish Government‟s dismal failure to provide universal, high-speed Broadband to every household and business in the country. In February 2008, Dail Eireann similarly debated the poor provision of Broadband throughout all of Ireland. In early 2008, Senator Ross published his private member‟s Broadband Bill. One of the main provisions of the Bill was to establish a National Broadband Network which will include all private and public infrastructures for the delivery of universal coverage. It also seeks “the establishment of a National Broadband Commission to represent Broadband consumers and to coordinate the implementation of the network” (Ross, S., 2008). This would be a replica of Sweden‟s IT infrastructure and Broadband working group which worked so successfully in developing their Broadband.

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The Swedish working group produced a vision which read as follows: Sweden must be the country where an efficient and secure IT infrastructure provides the best conditions for enterprise, innovation and eServices, both public and private. It must enable Swedish people to access the services they need no matter where they are.

(Swedish Government, 2006). They simply demanded universal Broadband access for all its citizens that will efficiently meet their particular needs. It is a laudable goal for any government. This has been intimated in the many utterances from the Irish Government, but not formally accentuated as an objective in a serious and concrete manner.

But more importantly the Government needs an overall plan for Broadband development in order to effectively co-ordinate the past and future efforts of Service Providers. This would require planning with the various stakeholders on how to develop the backbone infrastructure between the different towns and cities. At the next level or tier-1 it needs to examine the MANs, the infrastructure within the towns and cities.

Finally, there is the issue of the unbundling and developing of the infrastructure between the exchange and the consumer.

The Government has created difficulties for itself by making poor decisions in the past.

The first problem was the selling of Eircom to private enterprise. This meant that the Government no longer owns or controls the very infrastructure to bring Broadband to its people. The experts in the primary research highlighted this mistake. Just like the Tory Party in the UK during the 1980s the policy of privatising base infrastructure does not encourage investment and requires too much regulation. To compound this problem Eircom has abandoned its Broadband upgrade. Secondly, National

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Transcommunications Limited (NTL) and other smaller licensed operators were given exclusive rights in cabling large urban areas. They were and still are de facto monopolies in specified local markets in providing certain service bundles. This left the Irish Government inept. All the Government can sanction now is satellite and wireless connections and build its own infrastructure by digging and ducting. These alternatives are either of limited value to the Broadband architecture or only financially viable in limited situations.

According to the 2007-2013 National Development Plan (NDP), the Government is working to achieve nationwide Broadband coverage by the end of 2013. Its close neighbour Northern Ireland has already achieved 100% Broadband availability. BT Northern Ireland upgraded all 191 of its telephone exchanges in Northern Ireland for Broadband in 12 months during 2004-2005. It has made Broadband services available to 98.5% of houses and business. The Government in N.I. provided BT Northern Ireland with a £10 million fund to help with the roll out of the networks (Irish Exporters Association, 2005).

Senator Shane Ross has asked the Government to ease the problem of infrastructure shortcoming by introducing the following measures. He has requested the introduction of a so called „clever digging‟, which has proven highly successful in Denmark. It forces companies digging up roads to install ducting as well. This ducting will house future Broadband fibre optic cables for any Service Provider who wishes to use it. Ross‟ private members bill also includes a provision to force developers to have fibre optic cabling installed in all new apartments (Ross, S, 2008).

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3.3.1 National Development Plan (NDP) 2000-2006 In the NDP 2000-2006, the Government again highlighted that IT is a major plank of the Government‟s economic plan. As a consequence of that it stated that it needs to develop the Broadband infrastructure nationally. It outlined a number of reasons for this. Firstly, it wants to attract leading edge international Electronic Commerce companies. Secondly, it sees that E-Commerce is going to play a more fundamental role in business. Thirdly, it is needed to eliminate Ireland‟s competitiveness deficit in this area. Improving it will have the potential for generating long-term competitive advantage in the wider economy. Fourthly, there is a possibility of technological spinoffs from Broadband development.

In the words of the NDP 2000-2006, A key issue being addressed in the NDP in order to make this (eCommerce) a reality is the provision of Broadband capability in regional locations……… In the information, communications and telecommunications system, the emphasis should be on investment in Broadband telecommunications infrastructure.

Those were the aims and objectives. What did happen? Grants were made available for the development of Broadband technology, promotion of the development of the Information Society in Ireland and the development of cost-effective eCommerce infrastructures. The Plan supported the funding of private sector infrastructure and the construction of State-owned, open access MANs in 120 towns and cities nationwide in association with the local and regional authorities. Details of what happened in Ireland are expounded below.

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3.3.2 Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) In 2003 the Government launched its €65 million plan for Broadband metropolitan area networks in 19 Irish towns, from Cork to Donegal. This was meant to have a dramatic effect on these towns. It would facilitate more advanced use of Internet technology among hospitals and schools, as well as among local businesses and homes.

The development was 90 percent funded by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan 2000-2006, with co-funding from the EU under the European Regional Development Fund. They would be state-owned. Local authorities worked with private contractors to install 50,000 kilometres of high-speed fibre optic cable.

They formed rings linking the main business districts to a central location which housed the telecoms operators‟ telecommunications equipment. These MANs are available to all operators on an open access basis. All the Metropolitan Area Networks are managed, maintained, and operated by E-Net, a Limerick company.

The metropolitan area networks project was a move in the right direction to make affordable, always-on Broadband services available in Ireland. They would stimulate competition by removing the need for Service Providers to build their own networks.

But it left a lot to be desired. It didn‟t address: 1. Connectivity to the backbone.

2. Broadband connectivity to the end user.

3. Eircom‟s failure to develop Broadband Internet.

4. Eircom‟s prohibitively high retail prices.

5. Eircom‟s high wholesale prices for Broadband to its competitors.

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6. How to spend public finances effectively on the MANs project. The NDP 20072013 stated that the next phase of the MANs will only get the green light once “the effectiveness of spending under the first phase has been addressed”.

(McDonald, S, 2003; NDP 2007-2013). The major criticism levied against MANs is that many of the rings face problems in relation to connecting to backhaul networks.

Backhaul is the process of transporting voice and data traffic from a remote site to a central site. They are the Tier-2 networks that connect all the urban areas together and reach out to the rest of the world. To compound the problem, MANs also face problems with the „last mile‟. This is the copper wire connecting the exchange to the consumer.

Customers have difficulties in accessing MANs (Fine Gael, 2008). Again it points to a deficit by the Government in not having an overall strategic plan in which local initiative slots into. In conclusion, stating the disparaging words of a senior engineer in an Irish telecom‟s company, “Generally (but not in all cases), I consider the MANs to be €100m worth of taxpayers‟ money wasted in replicating the existing network in an non-integrated manner and with very little co-ordinated take-up resulting from it.”

(Primary research expert). Those words concur with the European Commission when it said that the scheme was “expensive” and their contribution was marginal (Irish Independent, 2007).

3.3.3 BMW Pilot Wireless Internet Service The Border, Midlands, and Western Regional Assembly are the designated Managing Authority for the Border, Midland and Western Regional Operational Programme under the National Development Plan 2000-2006. Amongst its concerns have been the provision of an integrated telecommunications infrastructure in that region. It

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implemented a pilot wireless Broadband scheme in the BMW Region in 2003. They did this under the auspices of the European Regional Development Fund.

This resulted in the BMW Pilot Wireless Internet Service which enabled delivery of rural Broadband services to nine small rural communities in 2003. The Service was part funded by the EU and the State. They received 80% support for the capital set up of the wireless Broadband service. This service was delivered to Ballinlough, Ballyleague & Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, Virginia in Co. Cavan, Ballyhaunis and Killala in Co Mayo, Dungloe in Co. Donegal, Enniscrone in Co. Sligo and Lanesboro in Co. Longford. Following on from this pilot scheme the Community/Telcom consortia were approved for assistance in July 2003 for the rollout of wireless Broadband to other isolated rural areas (BMW, 2008).

These efforts had very limited success in providing universal Broadband availability.

Among the many problems were issues with company formation, agreement of shareholding, and time pressures on local communities and providers to attend and facilitate meetings locally. As well as geographical topology challenges the issue of backbone connectivity also arose. This again calls for a national coordinated plan by Government into which local plans can be strategically integrated. These problems were highlighted by the Regional Assembly in its 2004 Review of the Group Broadband Scheme. They were echoed again in the 2007-2013 Border, Midland and Western Regional Operational Programme.

3.3.4 Group Broadband Scheme (GBS) It could be said that the Group Broadband Scheme replaced the BMW Pilot Wireless Internet Service and the Community/Telcom consortia. It would appear to have grown

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out of it. The Group Broadband Scheme was launched in March 2004 by Dermot Ahern, Minister for Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources under the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

The Government allocated €25 million to the project. Individual projects could receive funding of up to 55 percent, depending on the funding status of the particular community. Only communities of less than 1,500 people could apply.

The objective of the Scheme was to “…promote the roll-out of Broadband access through the establishment of sustainable Broadband services in small towns, villages and rural hinterlands through community-led initiatives” (DCMNR, 2004).

The goal of the scheme was to provide high-speed Internet access into smaller communities throughout the country by 2007. It was targeting the BMW regions but also the Southern & Eastern Regional regions. This would provide the basis for the rollout of Broadband services that the free market did not see as commercially viable. It was seen as bringing Ireland closer to „universal Broadband availability‟.

The intentions behind the GBS were laudable. In 2007, four years after its launch, it came in for serious criticisms. It was intended that the community get together and work with Service Providers to create a plan. Then they would get Government funding. This would give the local community its very own wireless Broadband network. As Sean Lynn of AirComm said of this scheme, the reality proved the old saying „get a committee to design a racehorse and they‟ll come up with a camel‟. The majority of the plans were based on some far-fetched community ideal scarce on commercial reasoning.

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This Government scheme has been an abject failure. Only 6,000 subscribers out of an envisaged 90,000 subscribers in the targeted rural areas were receiving Broadband service under the scheme. The Government eventually scrapped it in favour of the National Broadband Scheme (ADSL, 2007).

3.3.5 National Development Plan (NDP) 2007-2013 The ESRI prepared a report for the Department of Finance in preparation for the NDP 2007-2013. It highlighted that the first three NDPs had made an essential contribution to the transformation of the Irish economy and society over the last fifteen years. Without the investment under successive NDPs the economy would have choked from lack of infrastructure. The current NDP has greatly enhanced the economic and social infrastructure of the State with major benefits to economic development throughout all regions. This highlighted the success of greater infrastructural development. EU and national governments categorically state that Broadband is part of a nationâ&#x20AC;&#x;s infrastructure, and it is governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x;s responsibility to facilitate and foster its growth.

Irish Government utterances support this EU policy but only as an aspiration. It needs to show less reluctance in implementing it. While finance has been assigned to this effort overall planning with greater cohesion and cooperation among all the stakeholders is called for. In short, strategic planning is needed (ESRI, 2006).

The NDP 2007-2013 stated that it intends to build on the improvements of the NDP 2000-2006. These had supported the development of open access MANs in 120 towns and cities nationwide and the GBS in isolated rural areas. By making these MANs available to all operators on an open access carrier neutral basis, they are stimulating

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competition by removing the need for Service Providers to build their own networks.

GBS allows smaller towns and rural communities to develop.

The National Development Plan was launched in January 2007. The spending would run to â&#x201A;Ź185 billion over the six years of its life with â&#x201A;Ź435 million being spent on Broadband. The Plan pointed to spending in 5 areas. Some of this funding has already been spent. But some of it has been earmarked and more of it not so.

1. To date 27 MANs have been constructed and approximately 90 networks are due to be completed during 2007/08.

2. Over 160 GBS projects have been approved.

3. The funding has enabled the construction of a third fibre-optic backbone network by the ESB Telecom.

4. The funding has been spent on the upgrading of over 50 exchanges to permit DSL Broadband delivery.

5. A scheme to deliver Broadband to areas of the country that would not be reached by the MANs programme or by the GBS scheme is also being developed for implementation over the period of the Plan. The objective of the scheme will be to deliver a Broadband service to the limited number of areas where it is currently uneconomic for the private sector to do so (NDP 2007-2013).

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3.3.6 National Broadband Scheme (NBS) Mr. Noel Dempsey, the Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources launched the procurement process for the Governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x;s National Broadband Scheme in May 2007. The NBS will provide Broadband services to the areas of Ireland that are currently unserved and ensure that every reasonable request for Broadband in these unserved areas is met.

At the launch the Minister made this statement, Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x;s launch is great news for Broadband hungry consumers in rural areas. This Government believes that everyone, irrespective of where they are, should have access to high quality, competitively priced Broadband services. This tender will help to make that happen. The knowledge worker cannot be confined by geographic location and should be free to live and work outside of the cities and towns. Our future should require networks to follow the knowledge worker rather than the other way around (DCMNR, 2007a).

A single national tender will be used for the National Broadband Scheme, instead of a number of smaller regional tenders. This is due to the degree of Irelandâ&#x20AC;&#x;s spatial population distribution.

There are guaranteed minimum requirements to the consumers. The service will be an always on service of at least 1Mbit/s down and 128Kbits/s up. The minimum download capacity per connection must be 10 gigabits per month and the service must support Virtual Private Networks (VPN) for businesses and VoIP applications and devices for home business purposes. Latency must be sufficient in order to allow standard applications such as VoIP and online gaming to be run without significant degradation of service from an end user perspective. The cost must be no greater than the average price paid by customers in any serviced areas.

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The areas covered by the Broadband scheme are outlined as amounting to 10-15 percent of the country and 10 percent of the population.

On the wholesale side, supplier performance will be a key requirement for the scheme.

Appropriate Service Level Agreements will be offered to other Service Providers.

Regular reporting on Key Performance Indicators and other metrics will be crucial.

Four candidate firms have pre-qualified for the next phase of the procurement process.

These are BT Communications Ireland Consortium, Eircom, Three Ireland owner Hutchison 3G Ireland and a consortium made up of the Irish Farmers‟ Association and Motorola. The preferred candidate is to be selected in June of 2008 (DCMNR, 2007).

3.3.7 Home Computing Initiative (HCI) The Home Computing Initiative aims to increase the take-up in home PCs in Ireland. In 2006 ICT Ireland, Intel and the Department of An Taoiseach put together a new initiative to encourage the take-up of home computers in Ireland. The Initiative will also increase computer skills benefiting the community sector and helping employers and employees to build their skills. It is a further commitment by the Irish Government to the knowledge economy (Home Computing Initiative, 2006).

3.3.8 Criticisms of Government on Broadband The NDP 2007-2013 has been critical of the roll-out of Broadband saying that the rollout “in many parts of rural Ireland has been slow”. But the Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan offered hope in November 2007 by saying, “This

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Government has made the delivery of Broadband services to rural areas that are not yet served a key goal in our Programme for Government” (Ginty, 2007). But there is a raft of IT experts who see his ideal needing earlier attention. Firstly, his own colleagues have spoken:

In launching its Eleventh Report (April 2007) the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources has identified three main issues that need to be addressed:1. Government Policy with regard to Broadband rollout; 2. The incumbent fixed line operator; 3. The lack of dynamic, forceful and effective regulation.

(The Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, 2007).

Even though these criticisms were not made during the term of the present Government (2007-) they are still valid.

On 18 October, 2007, a motion was proposed in Seanad Eireann which read, „„That Seanad Eireann deplores the failure of the Government to ensure Broadband access in every home and business in Ireland.‟‟ It was supported by Senators Shane Ross, David Norris, Ivana Bacik, Joe O‟Toole, Ronan Mullen, and Feargal Quinn. Here again there was evidence of politicians criticising Government inactivity.

At the close of 2007, three IT experts were asked, “Is the political/commercial will there to support the Home Computing Initiative and the National Broadband Strategy?”

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Damien Mulley bluntly responded by saying, “No, IT and Broadband are one of the lowest priorities for the Government.” (Mulley, 2008)

Adam Maguire had this to say to the same question, Both political and industry leaders seem to have finally hit the realisation that Ireland‟s Broadband infrastructure is in bad shape and in need of major investments. Whether they have the will or ability to do what it takes to make the right moves remains to be seen. So far it has been slow progress and the new Government doesn‟t seem to be doing much different to the last (Maguire, 2008).

In a similar vein Alex French commented, Unfortunately, anything the Government has said comes down to sound bites; there is little they can actually do in the Broadband area now that they don‟t own the infrastructure. Allowing Eircom‟s physical copper network to be privatised was the biggest mistake in Irish telecoms policy in the last 50 years, and probably the next 50 too.

The Irish Government still thinks it can get over this by subsidising the supply side – for example, the MANs (metropolitan area networks), and the forthcoming spectrum for the Broadband Initiative. This never works; it should concentrate on stimulating the demand side and beefing up regulation of the Eircom network. Let private companies work on the supply side (French, 2008).

To summarise, criticisms have been coming from all quarters even from within Government. Words like slow progress, failure, low priority, inability are used to describe their efforts. Secondly, Broadband infrastructure is deficient in some areas.

Thirdly, it is in need of huge investment. Korea and Sweden are world leaders in Broadband provision whose governments have provided “significant strategic funding”, according to an expert (Primary Research). Finally, policies, planning and regulation need urgent attention.

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3.4 Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) ComReg is the statutory body responsible for the regulation of the electronic communications (telecommunications, radio communications and broadcasting transmission) and the postal sectors. ComReg is the Irish regulator for these sectors in accordance with EU and Irish laws.

ComReg has a range of functions and objectives in relation to the provision of electronic communications networks and electronic communications services. These include: • To ensure compliance with obligations.

• To promote competition.

• To contribute to the development of the internal market.

• To promote the interests of users within the European Community.

• To ensure efficient management and use of the radio frequency spectrum.

(The Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, 2007).

The Eleventh Report (April 2007) of the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources criticised ComReg for lacking dynamism, forcefulness and effectiveness in regulating the Broadband sector (The Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, 2007).

The European Commission basically said that ComReg lacks teeth. It blames weak regulation of the telecoms sector for the lack of Broadband development. Its report went on to say that the lack of muscle by ComReg has inhibited it from forcing Eircom to release its stranglehold on its telecoms infrastructure. They say this has inhibited faster

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growth of Broadband in Ireland. ComReg needed stronger powers through Government legislation.

The lack of competition in Ireland is illustrated by the wholesale charges. This is the amount in monthly line rental Eircom charges other Broadband suppliers before they can sell on to the consumer. It is the highest in Europe. ComReg has had little success forcing change on Eircom. The most the company can be fined under current Irish law is just â&#x201A;Ź3,000 (Irish Independent, 2007; RTE, 2007).

Significantly, the Oireachtas responded by giving enhanced enforcement powers to ComReg with the enactment of The Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act 2007. It will give the regulator new competition law power especially with regard to local loop unbundling, greater enforcement powers, and more efficient prosecuting procedures (DCMNR, 2007b).

There is still more ComReg could do. The UK telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, wants customers to have the right to end their contracts with Broadband providers without incurring penalties where downloads speeds are significantly below those promised. This is particularly important when there is a huge gap between advertised Broadband speeds and those users experienced. Ofcom has considered requiring Broadband providers to tell consumers, before they sign up, what the copper wires running to their homes will support as maximum download speeds (Parker, A. 2007).

This is the kind of consumer orientated thinking that ComReg needs to adopt in Ireland.

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3.5 Competition â&#x20AC;&#x153;Competitionâ&#x20AC;? is the pivotal word in Broadband development. It is music to the ears of the consumer offering them better services and lower prices. For the Government and ComReg it is a daunting challenge to achieve. For Eircom it is something they will not dance to because of the privileged position they do not want to relinquish. For all Service Providers it is a tool they will battle with to try and win a substantial portion of the Broadband market.

The EU and Irish governments want to see competition so prices will drop, services improve, take-up increase and the economy as a totality will prosper. As explained above the competition problem in Ireland began when the Government sold Eircom into private ownership. Now the EU and Irish Government want Eircom to give open access to its rival companies.

The problem for Eircom is that it has been operating as a retailer, but now it is being asked to also operate as a wholesaler. The latter is not in its interest. It creates a conflict of interest. There is a clash in its objectives which is greatly amplified by loosing its monopolistic position, breaking its exclusivity of supply and threatening its dominant position.

There is a need to distinguish the infrastructure i.e. exchanges, poles and wires, from the essential provision of telecom services. The reason this is necessary is because Eircom has resisted making the infrastructure available to their rivals.

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The neatest solution would be to separate the wholesale and retail aspects of Eircom.

The wholesale company would own the infrastructure. Its role would be solely to expand, develop, and rent the infrastructure to the retailers of telecommunications. The retail side of Eircom would then be a retailer like every other Service Provider renting the network infrastructure. It has been suggested that the owners Babcock and Brown could sell it on the open market or the Irish Government should buy the infrastructure back off them. This suggestion was also made by one of the experts in the primary research. There is no evidence to show that either of these two suggestions will be pursued.

A second solution has been suggested by Senator Shane Ross. He has made provision in his private member‟s Bill for the establishment of a National Broadband Network. It would get an inventory of all Government and privately owned infrastructure which can be used for Broadband for example ESB, Eircom and Irish Rail lines. These would be leased to the Network with current ownership unchanged. The Network would lease them on to providers as they require them (Ross, 2008).

Another solution is using negotiations, grants, regulation and the threat of law. This is much more cumbersome in achieving open access of the infrastructure. This is the road that the Government and Eircom have used. But what exactly are Eircom reluctant to unbundle?

The „last mile‟ refers to the copper wire connecting the private home to the telecoms exchange. These wires are needed to reach the consumer. Eircom is required to engage in a process called local loop unbundling. Rival retail companies want to take control of

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Eircom‟s landlines running between phone exchanges and homes so as to supply Broadband services. Eircom is then paid by the rivals for the use of the landlines.

Eircom can see this as bad news because it looks at what is happening to UK‟s BT who is in a similar position. In the second quarter of 2007, revenue from BT‟s wholesale operations fell by 4 percent because of unbundling. It gets more revenue when it supplies wholesale Broadband products to rivals than from unbundling (Parker, A. 2007).

When one looks at the Broadband market in the UK one notices that it started a little earlier than the Irish market. The Irish consumer should receive encouragement from this. There is increased competition. It has called for new tactics from rival companies.

For example, in the summer of 2007 BT offered a video service on the more expensive Broadband contracts that 60% of new customers are choosing. A rival, Carphone Warehouse, responded by saying that its customers can expect lower prices through the latter half of 2007 and throughout 2008. It has begun in Ireland with companies „unbundling‟ Broadband lines in Eircom exchanges (Hill, A. 2007).

There are over 1,100 exchanges in Ireland. During the summer of 2007, there were 500 Broadband enabled exchanges and another 450 were planned to be enabled by 2009.

That leaves 200 exchanges and 30% of the rural population without Broadband access in the foreseeable future. It is not commercially viable to Broadband-enable these last 200 exchanges. Who will enable them? Government. One has to wait (Dempsey, M. 2007). Enabling exchanges means installing them with digital IP-based switches.

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Will Eircom offer its rivals open access and the consumers of Ireland world class Broadband? The more pertinent question is not „Will Eircom‟, but rather „Can Eircom‟?

In Eircom‟s annual report to March 2006, borrowing represented 20 times profit, a debt of €2.2 billion to profits of €82m after tax. A year later the debt had gone to €3.8bn with a net loss of €80m for the preceding year. Eircom has too much debt, dissatisfied customer base, and grossly inadequate infrastructure. Many are sceptical of Eircom delivering, among them ComReg and the Government. Where will the finance come to further develop Eircom‟s infrastructure? (Dempsey, M. 2007). In February 2008 they have begun negotiations with the Government for tax concessions on Broadband development.

Cable networks are prevalent in most urban areas. While they have been used for the delivery of television services they have now offered Broadband services. Relative to Eircom their speeds are fast as 6Mbps. Private operators have also offered satellite Broadband, wireless Broadband, and the mobile phone companies have offered mobile Broadband. These are competing among themselves and with the landline services owned by Eircom. These services will be examined in further detail in the next chapter on infrastructure when their advantages and disadvantages will be highlighted.

3.6 Summary Chapter 2 highlights the growing need for Broadband services in Ireland. Usage, for the years leading up to 2007, has lagged behind the developed countries of the EU. With the rollout of Broadband subscriptions to the service have grown rapidly. Irish trends are in parallel with other counties that have a well established Broadband network.

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This current chapter shows all Broadband stakeholders agreeing that the present infrastructure is insufficient to meet the current, not to mention the future Irish Broadband needs. It went on to look at how different stakeholders have bridged the chasm between where we have been and where we need to go.

The challenge facing them now is primarily an issue of a Broadband service that offers speed and quality. There is still the issue of Broadband rollout in some rural areas which has to be addressed. Many criticisms have been made of the Broadband providers and planners for their flawed and inept efforts.

Rather than recall past failures this summary will show the lessons learned from the Irish experience, model EU countries and EU directives. It will suggest the necessary ingredients that are essential to forming a strategic plan with the Government at the helm driving it forward.

Irish Government 1. All the stakeholders, with counsel from experts, should have input into a strategic plan for the development of Broadband in Ireland.

2. Irish Government funding for the Rollout of Broadband to areas which are not economically viable for the private sector to develop. Public investment should be invested only after a cost benefit analysis has been carried out.

3. Establish National Broadband Network to take stewardship of the entire Broadband infrastructure, and lease it to Service Providers.

4. Deliverables to be achieved by specified dates, particularly in relation to penetration and speed.

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5. Educate and train people in the use of ICT; equip them with the necessary hardware and promote the use of Broadband among the Irish population.

6. Legislation to introduce the so called „clever digging‟, and the installation of the necessary infrastructure in new building developments.

ComReg 1. Stronger legislation that empowers ComReg. 2. Well-financed and staffed ComReg. 3. More stringent enforcement by ComReg of Service Providers‟ obligations.

Service Providers 1. Government funding to enable telephone exchanges that are not commercially viable for Eircom to enable.

2. Completion of Local Loop Unbundling, to ensure greater competition among Service Providers and lower prices for consumers.

3. Ensure that the incumbent, Eircom, provides an infrastructure with open access, technology neutral and competition neutral.

4. Financial Investment by the Service Providers to upgrade the services on offer to the consumer.

5. Encourage cable operators to invest in their network infrastructures to upgrade to digital, thus enabling an alternative Broadband delivery network.

Consumers 1. National Broadband Commission to represent customers and oversee the implementation of the sections of the Communication Acts that are pertinent to Broadband.

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4 Proposed Broadband Infrastructural Architecture 4.1 Introduction This dissertation began by advocating the further development of Broadband due to the inability of the current infrastructure to meet the growing needs of consumers as deduced from Chapter 2. In order to develop this infrastructure Chapter 3 established authoritative benchmarks that the various stakeholders should endeavour to comply with in formulating a plan for the rollout of Broadband.

This chapter begins by giving an aerial view of the current Irish Broadband infrastructure. It explains how customers are connected to the network, how the various regions are interconnected and how Ireland is connected internationally.

Central to this chapter is explaining the six different technologies for connecting consumers to the network. They are satellite, Broadband fixed wireless access (BFWA), hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC), 3G cellular technology, Wi-Fi hotspots, fibre optic cable and telephone copper wires. After looking at these technologies a blueprint will be put forward on how best to exploit their strengths in different geographical areas of Ireland in a cost effective manner.

4.2 Overview In 2007, Eircom chairman, Pierre Danon said â&#x20AC;&#x153;If we want to have real opportunities in rural areas we need to have a national network of fibre optic cables in ductsâ&#x20AC;? (Dempsey, M. 2007). He sees the Broadband capacity and speed that is delivered through the

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traditional copper wires as too small and too slow for the future. What is needed is a network of fibre optic cables. With the cost of current technologies running a fibre optic cable in ducts to every home and business in Ireland is not financially feasible, according to Fine Gael and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. They believe that rolling out such a network would cost in the region of €4 billion (Fine Gael, 2008). Contractors are charging €80+ per metre for digging and ducting along rural roads.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers has stated that it could be as high as €240 per metre depending on the terrain.

The widespread use of fibre optic cables in ducts would be utopia for the avaricious Broadband user. It offers speeds of up to 100Mbps. There is nothing to surpass it. It is a goal that should be aimed at in the long term if financially feasible. The use of fibre optic cables has been and continues to be used throughout the country, but only in densely populated areas and where there is heavy data traffic.

Because the ducting of fibre optic cable all over the country is nonviable, then a number of different technologies can profitably be used to bring Broadband to most people.

These are: Copper/Fibre, Satellite, Wireless, 3G cellular technology, Hybrid Fibre Coaxial, and Wi-Fi. These options will be examined below. Chapter 3 has shown that Government intervention is necessary in non-profitable locations.

What Pierre Danon has advocated above is NGN. It focuses on the need for a dramatic step-up in the speed and bandwidth of Broadband connectivity in Ireland. It will use Next Generation Access (NGA) which refers to a fibre-optic cable based network that is capable of facilitating Broadband Internet speeds of over 10Mbps. In actual fact it can

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deliver speeds of up to 100Mbps. Through such a network it is possible to transport all the telecommunications and media needs of a business or household â&#x20AC;&#x201C; data, images, voice and TV/video. By using such a network, business companies can offer new products and services to their customers such as online gaming, video conferencing and newspaper uploads. This would be made possible because a fibre based network has the capability of delivering any foreseeable developments. The barrier to the universal use of fibre is its financial infeasibility.

4.3 Three-Tier Hierarchical Internet Infrastructure The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) form a three-tier Internet Infrastructural hierarchy for the provision of Internet connectivity as shown in Figure 4.1 below. These three distinct tiers offer different services and target different customers.

Tier-1 ISPs are large national or international ISPs. They are also known as the Internet backbone networks. They have the most reliable networks and offer the highest connection speeds. Their customers are either lower-tiered ISPs or large companies that are looking for very reliable and fast access to the Internet.

Tier-2 ISPs purchase their Internet service from a Tier-1 ISP. Tier-2 ISPs tend to cover a specific region. They focus on business customers and have lower quality networks and slower access than Tier-1 ISPs.

Tier-3 ISPs purchase their Internet service from Tier-1 and Tier-2 ISPs. Tier-3 ISPs tend to focus on the retail market, and they also tend to cover a specific region. Network

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quality and access speed are relatively low. Their prices are much lower than those of Tier-2 or Tier-1 ISPs (Smart Computing, 2008).

Tier-1 The three-tier hierarchical Internet infrastructure is represented in Figure 4.1 below. At the top of the hierarchy are nine tier-1 ISP. In Figure 4.1 tier-1 is represented by the three tier-1 circles. Their coverage is international and they connect directly to each other using fibre optic cable. They have huge bandwidth and huge quantities of traffic travel through this tier. They have link speeds of 2.5 to 10 Gbps. They forward data at extremely high speeds. A major advantage of purchasing service from a Tier-1 ISP is if there is a problem with access, only one company is involved, so solving the problem is that much easier. Global Crossing is a Tier-1 ISP. In Figure 4.1 tier-2 connects to tier-1 in Dublin in order to have international Internet connectivity (Kurose, J. and Ross, K. 2005).

local ISP

local ISP

Tier 3 ISP

local ISP Tier-2 ISP

Tier-2 ISP

Tier 1 ISP Tier 1 ISP

Tier 1 ISP Tier-2 ISP local local ISP ISP

Tier-2 ISP local ISP

Figure 4.1 Three tier national Broadband structure

(Kurose, J. and Ross, K., 2005).

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In 2000, the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr. Noel Treacy said, In these days of advanced communications, the global marketplace knows no physical boundaries and is restricted only by the capacity of a country‟s connection to the world-wide web. The recent agreement with Global Crossing, providing Ireland with international Broadband connectivity, will enable us to provide up to 15 times the current international capacity out of Ireland at one tenth of the existing unit cost levels. It will mean we will become an integral part of a world class communications chain running from the USA to Ireland and onward to 24 European cities (Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, 2000).

That telecommunications project provided city to city Broadband access to 24 European cites and to the USA. It involved the construction of two telecommunications cables to the UK. It improved Ireland‟s International Broadband capacity 15 times.

Another connectivity initiative was the 360 Networks Atlantic project. It was the first transatlantic fibre optic cable to land directly here in Ireland. It offers direct connectivity between most North American and European Cities. These two developments were milestones in Ireland‟s development as an Information Society and ensure its place on the global playing field (Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, 2000).

When speaking of these, Fine Gael has highlighted the uncompetitive cost of backhaul going off the island of Ireland. It has called for this issue to be addressed (Fine Gael, 2008).

Tier-2 Tier-2 is represented in Figure 4.1 above and they connect to only a few tier-1 and tier-3 ISPs in the hierarchy. In Ireland they have national coverage. In order to reach a large

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portion of the global Internet, a tier-2 ISP needs to route traffic through one of the tier-1 ISPs to which it is connected. Many large companies and institutions connect their network directly into a tier-2 ISP. A tier-2 network may also choose to connect directly to other tier-2 networks. In this case traffic can flow between the two tier-2 networks without having to pass through a tier-1 network (Kurose, J. and Ross, K. 2005).

In economic terms tier-2 ISPs are the wholesale Broadband market. In 2007, ESB Telecom had 46.2% market share, Eircom 40.4% and 13.4% for BT Ireland of that market. The telecommunications regulator, ComReg, welcomed ESB Telecom into the market which would provide greater competition. ESB Telecom sells its high bandwidth connections to other telecoms who in turn sell bandwidth to the end users (Collins, J. 2007b).

There is already in place in Ireland a substantial network of backhaul ducting under the ownership of the State. The ESB has a 1300km figure-of-eight shaped network of 48strand fibre cables stretching throughout the State with spurs branching out to Sligo and Donegal as shown in Figure 4.2 below.

Aurora Telecom, a division of Bord Gais, has 25 miles of fibre networks configured in rings emanating from Dublin city centre towards business parks at the periphery. It also has fibre-optic lines running across the country alongside gas pipelines, many of which are not currently used. Bord Na Mona has a communications network in the midlands, while Iarnród Eireann has cabling laid alongside railways. MANs, RTE and the National Roads Authority also have ducting throughout the country. A previous attempt to tie this network together and create a new telecoms giant (known as “Project Dingle”)

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failed for two reasons according to Fine Gael. It attempted to merge the cable as well as the ducting as a unit in their negotiations. Secondly, it was not pursued with adequate political will and determination (Kelly, M. 2006; Fine Gael, 2008).

Figure 4.2 MANs, Group Broadband Scheme, and ESB Fibre Networks

Source: www.dcmnr.gov.ie

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Tier-3 Tier-3 is represented in Figure 4.1 above. In Ireland these generally connect up to tier-2 and downwards to households and businesses. In Ireland there are many ISPs in Tier-3.

The major providers are: Eircom, Imagine, Magnet Entertainment, Irish Broadband, Clearwire, ICE Broadband, Digiweb, NTL, BT, Magnet Networks, and Perlico and Chorus (getbroadband.ie, 2008). There are many ways of receiving Broadband from these companies, satellite, BFWA, hybrid fibre coaxial, 3G cellular technology, Wi-Fi hotspots, fibre optic cable and the telephone copper wire lines. Each of these will be discussed in detail below.

The availability of Broadband in Ireland is dominated by Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and cable television services using hybrid fibre coaxial cable. This is expected to continue. Cable services are built on top of cable TV infrastructures in urban areas.

DSL services are also provided in urban areas and in some rural locations. They involve running a copper wire from the usersâ&#x20AC;&#x; building back to the telecommunicationâ&#x20AC;&#x;s network. Further back the line it will be attached to fibre optic cable. The distance to the fibre continues to get shorter, thus increasing speed. One initiative for achieving this will be deploying fibre to the cabinet (FTTC). This is expected to be more widely used.

There are currently low levels of availability of fibre to the user / building (FTTU/B), Broadband fixed wireless access and Wi-Fi hotspots. While the use of FTTB continues to grow it will not replace DSL in the medium term. FTTB availability has a dramatic effect on the speed and range of services that can to be offered. If demand for services

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moves above 10Mbps, particularly among business users, it is expected that fibre will be deployed but it will be limited to urban areas (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2004: 8-9).

4.4 Tier-3 The following pages will examine the different technologies used in tier-3. They include satellite, BFWA, hybrid fibre coaxial, 3G cellular technology, Wi-Fi hotspots, fibre optic cable and the telephone copper wire lines. They all link the consumer back to an exchange. All the exchanges connect to tier-2. Over half of them have been enabled.

While more of the exchanges are being enabled there are some exchanges that are not financially feasible to enable. The Government has been called on to foot that bill by Eircom. The task of local loop unbundling continues in these exchanges so Eircom‟s competitors can exploit the „last mile‟.

4.4.1 Satellite Communication satellites are often used in the backbone of the Internet or communicating directly with consumers. This is achieved by placing the satellite in orbit at 36,000 kilometres above the Earth‟s surface. This means that it is in a stationary presence, remaining permanently above the same spot on Earth. For this reason it is called a geostationary satellite.

The satellite links two or more Earth-based microwave transmitters/receivers, known as ground stations. The satellite receives transmissions on one frequency band from a ground transmitter. It then regenerates the signal using a repeater. Finally, it transmits the signal on another frequency to the ground receiver. Satellites can provide

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transmission rates in the gigabit per second range. Even though they have this capacity the costs would be prohibitive for the average Irish consumer. Costs of a 1Mbps connection put it amongst the most expensive means of having Broadband. Digiweb, who offer this service, are planning to introduce a higher level service for corporate and educational installations which will support larger user networks with speeds of up to 4Mbps download and 1Mbps download.

Satellites suffer from latency. This is the delay that occurs because data must travel over large distances from a ground station to the satellite and then back to ground station again. It introduces a substantial signal delay of 250 milliseconds (Kurose, J. and Ross, K. 2005).

Due to this, satellite systems are not suitable for businesses that require real-time delivery of information/data e.g. video conferencing, VOIP, heavy uplink traffic, remote control software, remote control software, and online gaming. If an organisation requires such services, it is important to be aware that satellite will not provide this functionality. However, satellite access is adequate for most home and Small to Medium Sized Enterprises that require Internet e.g. web surfing, and email. Many secondary schools in Ireland access the Internet through satellite from Digiweb Service Providers. Its use could also be best exploited in remote rural locations (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2004: 30; Digiweb, 2008).

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Advantages: Available almost universally.

There are no hard transfer limits i.e. providers will not charged for exceeding the prescribed transfer limit e.g. 10 GB per month.

Disadvantages High connection/terminal equipment charge, costing about €950.

Installation costs €400.

Monthly rental at approximately €100 to €200.

Download/Upload speeds are usually 1Mbps/512Kbps.

Lower speeds during peak times.

Long latency times.

Affected by extremely heavy rain or snow.

4.4.2 Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BFWA) Private investment in fibre optic cable is directed towards the populated areas. Rural areas need investment so that the digital divide does not increase. They will not receive either private or public finance towards the rollout of fibre. So how does the rural community receive Broadband? “This can only realistically be achieved by exploiting the potential of wireless technologies to deliver high-speed Internet to rural areas.”

(Fine Gael, 2008). The roll out fibre to the antennae that beams out signals to the consumer is the preferred suggestion according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers. This would depend on the cost of the rollout to the backhaul network or exchange.

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Broadband Fixed Wireless Access is an architecture in which the location of the end user and the network access point are fixed. The key challenge facing wireless Broadband operators is the choice of the appropriate technology (WiMAX or HSDPA) to deploy in order to take advantage of the opportunity. HSDPA is used by cellular mobile phone companies to deliver Broadband which is explained in the next subsection. WiMAX is more popular for fixed wireless access; Eircom use it.

WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile type access. It is a non-lineof-sight wireless transmission system (WiMAX, 2008). To achieve this WiMAX needs two things: bandwidth and power. The following four scenarios explain how its works.

The examples are simplified for explanatory reasons.

If the State releases limitless bandwidth then Service Providers. can transmit to a large area by applying sufficient power. This is the optimal solution. It can transmit to many customers with speed from one location.

If the State limits the bandwidth then there are three options open to Service Providers.

This is the situation that they usually find themselves in. From one location they can only transmit to a limited number of customers with speed by applying sufficient power.

Secondly, they could from one location transmit to many customers without speed by applying sufficient power. Thirdly, they could from many locations transmit to many customers with speed by reducing power. It is the latter situation that Service Providers find themselves in.

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They have limited bandwidth. They have to gauge how many potential customers in an area will use Fixed Wireless Access. They will have to forecast the data rates they will be expected to transmit at any one time. The topography of the area will also need to be examined. From that information they can decide the number and location of the sites for transmitting. These systems are usually set to transmit 8Mbits/sec. The backhaul it uses can be a mix of fibre, copper and/or WiMAX.

The switch-off of analogue television in Ireland in 2012 will lead to a freeing-up of spectrum that could be used to supply high-bandwidth Broadband. The allocation of spectrum issue needs further consideration at a policy level according to Fine Gael report (Fine Gael, 2008).

Analysys (2007), an IT research company, has identified key market factors that are driving the success of wireless Broadband. The key factors include: 1. large number of mobile only households.

2. limitations on the coverage of the fixed Broadband network.

3. pricing for wireless Broadband that is similar to, or lower than, fixed Broadband services.

While it could be deployed in urban areas its forecasted use in Ireland is expected to be in rural areas. Its overall use in delivering Broadband has been suggested as less than 10%, it could be as low as 3% (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2004). Experts stated in the primary research that WiMax technology could progress like cellular phone networks with frequencies reused. However there are issues around its effective deployment.

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A number of telecom companies have received Fixed Wireless licences. Following the interviewing of Eircom an Oireachtas report was prepared on the findings. Eircom currently uses its Fixed Wireless licence to provide limited Broadband services where DSL is not viable. It is enabling the delivery of last mile wireless Broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL. In 2007 they were conducting WiMax trials with 180 customers from 45 possible WiMax locations. Following this trial a decision on commercial rollout will be made (The Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, 2007). ICE is the leading supplier of wireless Broadband and the following are its charges.

Download Speed 5 Mbps

6 Mbps

Upload Speed

3 Mbps

4 Mbps

Prices

â&#x201A;Ź89

â&#x201A;Ź135

Table 4.1 Cost of WiMax

Advantages: It shows potential in rural areas, but probably needs to be subsidised by Government.

Disadvantages User costs are higher than landlines.

Infrastructure is expensive in rural areas.

The download speeds are at the lower end of the Broadband range.

4.4.3 3G cellular technology 3G cellular technology uses USB modem cards which are identified in the figure to the left. It is 10 cms in length and it is plugged into

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the USB port of a laptop. This offers a wireless nomadic connection so the user can connect to the Internet wherever the PC and modem card receive a signal from a 3G provider via a mobile network. These USB modem cards are capable of Broadband speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps. They are a form of wireless Broadband that use a protocol called high-speed download packet access (HSDPA).

The 3G HSDPA networks are provided by 3, Vodafone and O2. They currently cover up to 85pc of the population. Hutchinson Whampoa owners of 3 were first off the mark in this growing marketplace in late 2006, followed by O2 and Vodafone.

When John Kennedy, the IT correspondent for the Irish Independent, reviewed all three services, there was little to distinguish them in terms of speed. He found that they all suffered the same problem of connections that just dropped at the least opportune moment.

3â&#x20AC;&#x;s latest USB modem, the ZTE has been shown to be more resilient. It has an intelligent technology which locks onto the network very efficiently by selecting the strongest signal available. But they are not the silver bullet to Irelandâ&#x20AC;&#x;s Broadband problem just yet.

This is the fastest growing segment of the Irish Broadband market. It is one where subscribers do not have to pay line rental for the privilege of just getting Broadband.

The segment is still in its infancy. The devices are proving popular with both residential and professional users who want Broadband. Figures from ComReg (2007b) indicate a penetration rate of about 2%. It shows promise for the kind of services that require

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having a mobile Broadband connection. While being ideal for Skype Internet calls it also offers basic Internet services that it can provide (Kennedy, J. 2008).

Advantages: Don‟t have to pay line rental.

Reasonably good download speeds at up to 3.6 Mbps.

Can be used almost anywhere in the country.

Disadvantages Covers less than 85pc of the population.

USB modem cards cost up to €149 each.

Monthly rental at approximately €30 is somewhat higher than landline which allows a maximum of 10Gb of data to be transmitted per month before extra charges kick in.

4.4.4 Wi-Fi Wi-Fi is a wireless technology that typically operates at 2.5GHz. It is unlicensed and there is no large license fee. It is used as an access point that is connected to the Internet. It could use almost any of the tier-3 technologies to connect back to the exchange, DSL being the most important.

A number of access points can be interconnected to form a wireless network mesh.

These can typically be found on a large university campus. They can cover an area as small as a single room or as large as many square miles when there are overlapping access points.

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Once a PC has a wireless network card installed then it is Wi-Fi enabled. It can connect to the Internet if it is within range of an access point, called a hotspot.

Wi-Fi can be restricted for use in homes and offices. Wi-Fi has been made accessible publicly from Wi-Fi hotspots which are strategically located in public areas. It is usually provided either free of charge or to subscribers of various Service Providers. Eircom has over 1,000 hotspot locations in Ireland. They are located in all their phone booths and many restaurants. To connect to them a user needs to be either a customer or purchase a wireless access voucher from a hotspot venue. Organizations and businesses such as airports, railway stations, public transport, hotels, restaurants, public buildings and libraries often provide free hotspots to attract clients.

Metropolitan-wide Wi-Fi (Municipal wireless network, Municipal Wi-Fi, or Muni WiFi) is the concept of turning a city into a zone where the Internet can be accessed wirelessly. The ultimate goal of these schemes is to make wireless access to the Internet a universal service. This is usually done by deploying hundreds of routers outdoors, usually on utility poles.

There were plans suggested to establish such a free scheme in parts of Dublin to the public. In autumn of 2007, Dublin City Council announced plans to introduce wireless Internet access for the residents of Ballymun and Ballyfermot for free. People would be able to access the Internet in their own homes, as well as public places. The estimated cost was about â&#x201A;Ź20 million to the Council (getbroadband.ie, 2007). The issue of competition arose. Private Service Providers could claim to the EU Commission that such an investment of public money distorts the free market. It now appears that such a

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scheme will not be pursued. Dublin City Council abandoned this plan because the EU has placed limitations on state aid, where a viable market is considered already to be in place, as articulated in the ruling against Prague‟s city wide Wi-Fi (RTE, 2008).

It has been deployed in Norwich, Eastern England providing free Internet access to the public sector, the business community and the general public since July 2006 until March 2008. The project is not allowed to compete with commercial Wi-Fi services, so the access speed for businesses and the public has been restricted to 256 kilobits per second, with sessions limited to an hour.

British Telecom (BT) Ireland wants to introduce a community Wi-Fi in the Republic.

BT, like other telecoms, is a member of FON, who are a community of people aiming to provide free Wi-Fi. This allows subscribers, of BT and these other telecoms, to become part of this worldwide community of surfers who will have access to the Internet worldwide (FON, 2008).

It has plans to ask its retail customers to share a small portion of their Broadband connection. On that portion a separate secure channel will be opened on the wireless router. Then the customers become a member of a global community of 500,000 surfers who will have more than 190,000 high speed connections worldwide from which to access the Internet. BT‟s company motto is “You pay at home and roam the world for free”. With these plans it is hoping to become the world‟s largest Wi-Fi community (Collins, J. 2007c).

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Wi-Fi could appear on Dublin public transport. In January 2008, the Chief Executive of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce launched a paper on the knowledge economy, which included a proposal to introduce Wi-Fi on public transport in Dublin. They have advocated that it should be included in the plans to deliver any Transport 21 projects, such as the Metro.

It is expected that this Wi-Fi service will be rolled out well before 2012. It could be free with the cost of it integrated into the ticket price or offset through advertising. It would prove beneficial for those who want to make better use of their time while travelling to work on the bus, Luas or DART (RTE, 2008). Expert comment in the primary research pointed out that Wi-Fi is useful but it is not a long term solution.

Advantages: In some situations it can be free to use.

Deployed in most urban areas.

Useful to the person on the move.

Low start-up costs for provider.

Disadvantages If it is not free it can be expensive e.g. â&#x201A;Ź25 per month.

The download speeds are slow.

It provides coverage only in populated areas.

Recharging a laptop battery may not be always possible when on the move. Car laptop chargers overcome this problem for car owners.

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4.4.5 Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) Cable television companies have delivered television channels to urban consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x; homes using hybrid fibre coaxial cable. This section looks at how these companies, namely NTL and Chorus, deliver Broadband to its urban customers by using their current infrastructure.

The availability of Broadband has been and it seems that it will continue to be dominated by DSL, over the copper phone wires, and hybrid fibre coaxial cables. Figure 4.C below outlines a hybrid fibre coaxial access network. The Service Provider runs a fibre cable from the hard end of its network to a fibre node. It can reach speeds of tens of gigabits per second for distances of up to 100 kilometres. From the fibre node a coaxial branches out to serve at least 200 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 500 users, depending on the bandwidth required by each user. Careful planning would be needed because of the increasing number of users or growing bandwidth required off each node.

Figure 4.3 Hybrid Fibre Coaxial

Source: Kurose, Ross, 2005

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One of the serious drawbacks with hybrid fibre coaxial is that the channel is shared with all other users emanating from the head end node. This means that all data sent by the head end travels down the channel on every link to every home to reach the user. It is a similar situation when the user sends data back to the head end. This means that if 20 users are simultaneously downloading data then the channel‟s speed is divided by 20, thus slowing the download speeds. On the other hand if there are only a few users on that cable then each can expect to receive it at the full download speed. It bears a similarity to the contention rate in the DSL phone wire system.

While claiming speeds of up to 30Mbits/sec per home ntl‟s maximum speed in Ireland is 6.5Mbps which is split between download and upload speeds. The prices quoted in the table below are for a Broadband connection only; they would be cheaper if cable television was included in the package. The €26 per month cost compares favourably with a similar package from Eircom where a home phone is not included, costing €39.18/m. Another scenario: if the cable television was already installed and home phone already connected, then Eircom would be more favourable, Eircom costing €15/m, ntl costing €20/m.

Download Speed 1 Mbps

3 Mbps

6 Mbps

Upload Speed

100 Kbs

300 Kbs

512 Kbs

Prices

€26

€36

€46

Table 4.2 Cost of cable television Broadband services

(PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2004: 32, 48; Kurose, J. and Ross, K. 2005: 26-29, 32-33; UPC, 2008)

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Advantages: Deployed in most urban areas.

Low start-up costs for provider because of the existence of a cable television network.

The user costs are on par with other cheaper technologies.

The speeds are sufficient for the modest user.

Currently, it is advantageous to cable network operators that the regulatory authorities do not compel them to allow open access to their infrastructure.

Disadvantages It is not feasible to be deployed in rural areas.

The download speeds get slower with multiple users online.

Coverage is only in populated areas.

4.4.6 Copper/Fibre Copper/Fibre services the largest portion of the Broadband market. It has and for the foreseeable future will occupy between 70% and 90% of it. The idea would be to run fibre optic to every Broadband customer in the country. Such cable can carry signals of much higher bandwidth than the copper that makes up most of the current network giving speeds of up to 100Mbps. But with a price tag of â&#x201A;Ź4 billion this option is not feasible. The benefits could not justify the costs which will be illustrated in Chapter 5.

Another suggestion was to hang fibre optic cable from poles where ducting is not available. Since it is susceptible to damage it must be housed in underground pipes known as ducts.

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A mix of copper and fibre is the optimal solution for reasons of cost efficiency.

Estimates show that 80% of the investment in FTTB network is accounted by civil engineering costs – in large part comprised of the digging of trenches and the laying of ducts. There are a few exceptions to this, large institutions, business parks and densely populated areas. The roll out of FTTB is only justified in these cases where is will be sufficiently utilised.

The cost is significantly less in the case of a FTTK network. In 2008, this is what is being advocated by a Fine Gael report, Eircom, other telecoms, politicians, and IT experts. The use of fibre needs to be prioritised on a cost effective basis. “Fibre to the cabinet” (FTTC) or “fibre to the kerb” (FTTK) network is something that is achievable.

The fibre would be carried through ducts to the cabinet. The connection from the cabinet to the home still remains copper wire. The closer the fibre optic cable goes to the home/business, the greater the speeds that the user will enjoy. This arrangement can give speeds of up to 25Mbps. This is illustrated in Plan A and Plan B below. With this in place the last mile copper connecting into each home can be upgraded to fibre on an incremental basis. Insisting on adequate ducting to all new buildings will contribute to this happening. Sweden has 16% fibre to the home (FTTH) connections. It has the third highest proportion of such connections and has the fourth-highest average download speeds in the world (Fine Gael, 2008).

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Figure 4.4 Plan A â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Current Network

(Source: Fine Gael, 2008)

Figure 4.5 Plan B â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Proposed Network

At infrastructural level ducting is the crucial issue that needs addressing. As sited above this runs to 80% of the overall cost of installing fibre. It is a barrier to new entrants competing with the incumbent Eircom. Unless this issue is resolved there is a real fear of a wholesale monopoly existing. This will most certainly hamper competition.

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There are a number of endeavours that can be embarked upon to create a network of open access piping. As stated in Chapter 3 legislation needs be enacted requiring the installation of ducting for fibre in all new building developments.

Secondly, the incumbent Eircom should offer open access to its ducts. EU or Irish regulation may compel it to do just this. France Telecom announced its intention to fully open its ducts to competitors. Opening access to ducts is a regulatory model favoured by the EU Commission because it removes an important barrier to new market entrants rolling out their own infrastructure.

Thirdly Fine Gael argues that there should be a State Funded roll-out of a comprehensive nationwide network of ducts. This should stimulate the speedier roll-out of fibre through a state managed network of ducts.

The second issue that arises with regard to infrastructure is the issue of unbundling.

Prior to unbundling the incumbentâ&#x20AC;&#x;s rivals could sell services to the consumer on its lines. Then the situation moved to allow rivals to rent the line at a wholesale price for retail purposes. With unbundling rivals are allowed enter the incumbents exchange and attach their own equipment to the lines they wish to utilise.

Unbundling began with a European Commission Report in 1993. This was later followed by EU legislation and later again by national legislation demanding LLU. Without LLU new entrants cannot actually provide certain services such as DSL. The danger with this strategy is the incumbent is not induced to upgrade a copper line to fibre if a rival is using it for Broadband.

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4.5 Proposed Broadband Architecture From the opening chapter it is evident that there is a growing need for greater Broadband penetration and speeds. After examining the different Broadband technologies that are available a national Broadband architecture is now proposed.

Tier-1, there is a very satisfactory infrastructure for data to travel from and onto the island of Ireland. Costing is an issue that needs to be addressed.

Tier-2 is the network infrastructure that covers the entire country. Currently it is a fractured and disjointed collection of networks with the MANs project being the most dismal. Even though efforts to unify these fixed assets have failed the Government should use imaginative plans and strategic tactics to re-kindle them. A unified Tier-2 network would greatly enhance the infrastructure for Broadband services in Ireland.

In Tier-3 fibre is hailed as the champion of Broadband. While there is already fibre ducted in the ground large private companies such as Eircom, UPC, Smart and BT have begun laying fibre optic cable in many parts of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x;s larger urban areas (Fine Gael, 2008). The rollout of it in ducts makes it unsuitable for all consumers. Because of this problem planners need to call on other technologies to facilitate the Broadband needs of the entire population, which is shown below. In 2004, PriceWaterhouseCoopers forecast the technology mix will be as illustrated in the pie chart below. It excludes 3G cellular technology which currently occupies about 2% of the Broadband market. Neither does it include Wi-Fi which is believed to be ancillary to the base Broadband services that consumers use.

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Forecasted Technology Mix - 2013

6.3

2.9 0.9

10.2

ADSL Fibre to the Building

%

Cable Wireless Satellite 79.7

Figure 4.6 Forecasted Technology Mix

(PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2003)

4.5.1 Users in Remote Rural Areas There are only 3 available technologies for the remote rural user to make a Broadband connection to the Internet. They are satellite, 3G cellular technology and BFWA.

Satellite will connect the user but at a high price, with limited services and latency delays. Financially 3G cellular technology are viable offering download speeds that can provide basic Internet services, but the coverage may not be strong enough to reach the user. BFWA is the preferred technology for such users. It continues to be sponsored by Government through the Broadband Scheme. It is the chosen technology for these rural locations because it is terrestrial, affordable, cost effective and universal.

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4.5.2 Users in Populated Rural Areas Users in populated rural areas have a growing assortment of technologies to choose from. They are DSL, 3G cellular technology, Satellite and BFWA. Satellite would be an expensive option especially when there are cheaper and better services available.

If BFWA is available the user should give serious thought to installing it. While being a little more expensive than DSL it does offer the basic Internet services effectively and efficiently. If the 3G mobile service can be received by the user with a strong signal again it should be given serious consideration because it delivers the basic Internet services effectively and at an affordable price. It does have the added bonus of being mobile. DSL will only be receivable if it is within 5km of a telephone exchange. In those cases the user should also consider its use.

There are 3 technologies that should be developed in these lightly populated geographical areas. BFWA should be developed because it offers the greatest capacity to reach out to everybody in those communities. 3G cellular technology should be developed because it offers mobility to the user. DSL should be developed because it will offer the greatest number of services.

4.5.3 Users in Urban Areas Users in Urban Areas are open to accessing all Broadband technologies. Satellite should be considered unnecessary because it is limited in the services it can provide and it is expensive. The use of BFWA is limited in urban areas to large campus type organisations or public institutions. 3G cellular technology are becoming popular both

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in the home and with business people because it offers the basic Internet services at an affordable price. Both should be developed because they offer mobility to the user.

Wi-Fi is currently widespread in all urban cities in Ireland. For example, Eircom customers have over 1000 hotspots to access the Internet from. This is a technology that should continue to be developed in urban areas.

Cable offers more that the basic Internet service at one of the lowest prices of all the technologies. Its availability is widespread throughout urban areas. Even though its uptake is low, it has many proponents in the IT community that call for it to be developed further.

DSL has the greatest share of the urban market. By the continuous replacement of copper wires with fibre it is the only technology that has the scope to offer the highest levels of service. It is achieving this at very competitive prices. As in other Broadband advanced countries there is a universal call for the full roll-out of fibre to the building.

This development is and should continue to be supported by Government and the Service Providers in a real and active manner.

4.5.4 Users on the Move For users on the move there are two options to choose from, Wi-Fi Hotspots, or USB modem cards using 3G Cellular Technology. Currently, Wi-Fi Hotspots are an option, but only in populated areas. They rely on the installation of modems in strategic positions e.g. airports, railway stations, hotels, public buildings, phone booths, public transport, and Service Providers are also involved. The user has to be within one

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hundred metres of these modems and have a wireless network card installed in his or her computer to make the Broadband connection to the Internet. Currently, the speeds tend to be at the lower end of the spectrum. It is adequate for low data traffic needs. The advantage with this service is that they are invariably free if the user is a customer.

The USB modem cards win hands down in this contest. The Broadband can be accessed in almost 90% of the country. With technological improvements the service is becoming more reliable. The speeds are adequate for voice, text, and image data transmission. The disadvantage is that there is a cost of about â&#x201A;Ź30 per month, somewhat higher than the landline connection.

4.6 Summary Ireland has been hailed for the strength of its international Broadband connectivity both to North America and 24 cities in the UK and continental Europe. In tier-2 while Eircom, ESB Telecom and BT Ireland are the major players there are a number of smaller regional based networks. The great failure at this level is the lack of interconnectivity between them. Consolidating this into one unit would be strategically advantageous to Irish Broadband. Connecting this tier to the exchanges and on out to the consumers requires co-ordinated planning by backbone fibre owners and developers.

Failure to achieve this has brought criticism from as far away as the European Commission.

While this summary is meant to be a review of this chapter it is principally a review of the proposed infrastructural architecture. What is central to this Broadband architecture is connecting users to the national network both efficiently and effectively. Even though 93

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this has been dealt with in the latter pages of the chapter a brief synopsis of the pertinent points follows.

Tier-3 offers six technologies: satellite, BFWA, hybrid fibre coaxial, 3G cellular technology, Wi-Fi hotspots, fibre optic cable and telephone copper wires.

Technology offers remote rural areas only two choices, satellite and BFWA, but 3G cellular technology is unlikely to be helpful. The former two can deliver Broadband Internet but not at an affordable price. BFWA is the preferred choice to develop because it is terrestrial and the most likely to be sponsored by the State.

For the user in populated rural areas DSL should be developed because in the long term it is the technology with the ability to deliver the greatest service. While this is not cost effective in the interim 3G cellular technology and BFWA are more cost effective while confidently delivering the basic Broadband services to the largest segment of the this population.

For the urban user there is probably a choice of all 6 technologies to choose from. If the user has only basic Internet needs then 3G cellular technology, BFWA and cable are sufficient to meet those needs. Both should be developed because the infrastructure already exists, while 3G and BFWA also offers mobility. DSL should be developed by the further rollout of fibre because it has the greatest capacity to deliver data laden services. It also offers the cheapest prices and largest share of the Broadband market.

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For the user on the move 3G technology and Wi-Fi hotspots should be developed.

While they do not supplant landline connections for heavy data traffic both of them have great merit in urban areas for the delivery of basic Internet services. 3G can deliver this in almost 90% of the country at an affordable price.

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5 Economic Benefits of Broadband Availability 5.1 Introduction Each of the former three chapters forms a premise in the argument that further developing quality Broadband will benefit the Irish economy. The second chapter indicates that there is a growing user need which the current infrastructure can not adequately meet. Chapter 3 highlights the need for a greater strategic alliance among the Service Providers in the coordination of the optimal infrastructure so as to provide services at a lower price. The fourth chapter identified the optimal technical solution for the provision of the Broadband. This current chapter will cost these proposals and the ensuing benefit that will flow from it. The costs and benefits refer to those incurred and received in Ireland.

The words of the Directorate-General of the European Commission spoken in 2007 said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Broadband is of strategic importance because of its ability to accelerate the contribution of these technologies to economic growth, to facilitate innovation and in order to enhance social inclusionâ&#x20AC;? (Ginty, C., 2007). This had been the central tenet of this study. This chapter will go on to verify his words.

5.2 Preamble to Cost Benefit Analysis 5.2.1 Sources of data The sources of financial figures in this chapter are IBECâ&#x20AC;&#x;s Telecommunications & Internet Federation, A Cost Benefit Analysis for Broadband connectivity in Europe Report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and The Economic Impact of Stimulating

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Broadband Nationally, by Connected Nation. The PriceWaterhouseCoopers report has been scaled to suit Ireland.

Figures emanating from these sources give a tone of certainty to the calculations.

Narratives in these documents stress that these figures are forecasts, and as such are estimates that were difficult to determine.

Some of the issues that affect these forecasts are:

1. ComRegâ&#x20AC;&#x;s evolving role in the rollout of Broadband 2. Promotions to encourage the adoption of Broadband and its consequential benefits.

3. Growing level of services on offer to the consumer across the Broadband network.

The behaviour of these issues is difficult to predict and quantifying their financial affects is even more challenging.

5.2.2 Approach and Background In discovering the economic benefit of rolling out the optimal Broadband solution in Ireland a cost model is prepared. It refers to the costs associated with the deployment and maintenance of Broadband services to the user. It is based on the optimal technical solution for the provision of Broadband connectivity in Ireland as described in Chapter 4. Table 5.1 represents a base case take up of Broadband from which the cost/benefit figures will be calculated.

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2013 Availability Take up Urban 97% 74% Rural 78% 39% Table 5.1 Availability and Take up of Broadband in Ireland

The benefits will be quantified by adding the benefits amassed to the Broadband Service Providers, the consumers, Service Providers on the Internet, and savings made. By subtracting the total costs from the total benefits the net benefits will then be determined. By dividing the benefits by the costs it will give the cost-benefit ratio. This is useful in making a quick determination of return on investment (ROI) in either rural or urban Ireland.

The health of the Irish economy impacts on these costs and benefits. The positives are that it has mature, competitive markets, a high GDP and high annual disposable income.

But it has 26% of the population in Objective 1 areas. Objective 1 status is given to regions whose development is lagging behind others in the EU so as to promote its development and structural adjustment. They are in both urban as well as rural areas.

These large areas are less attractive to serve because of lower GDP, rugged terrain and lack of economic development. This leads to lower overall levels of Broadband take-up with a poor ROI and cost-benefit ratio. Table 5.2 shows the estimated cost of providing Broadband in these regions with a negative return in the early years. Public funding is required to sponsor these projects.

Objective 1 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 24 29 33 38 42 45 Ireland 26% Table 5.2 Estimated cost of providing Broadband in Objective 1 regions (Euro million).

Source: (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2003)

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5.2.3 NPV Cost-benefit Ratio Table 5.3 was sourced from PriceWaterhouseCoopers. It gives a NPV breakdown of the costs, benefits and net benefits for the rollout and use of Broadband in both urban and rural areas in Europe. There is also a combined analysis for urban and rural. The value of this Table in this study is the total figures it produces in the rightmost column. Most of these totals are carried down to Table 5.4 to produce a NPV cost-benefit ratio. This is a speedy way of calculating the net benefit for an investment in either urban or rural Ireland when the optimal technologies are used if a cost has already been calculated.

Million Euro Urban Cost Benefit Net Benefits Rural Cost Benefit Net Benefits Total Cost Benefit Net Benefits

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Totals

16,843 19,603 22,157 24,472 26,433 27,997 137,505 29,400 33,432 36,985 40,120 42,889 45,347 228,173 12,557 13,829 14,828 15,648 16,456 17,350 90,668

6,338 7,098 760

7,325 8,374 1,049

8,220 9,005 9,690 10,276 9,542 10,604 11,575 12,470 1,322 1,599 1,885 2,194

50,854 59,663 8,809

23,181 26,928 30,377 33,477 36,122 38,273 188,358 36,498 41,806 46,527 50,724 54,464 57,817 287,836 13,317 14,878 16,150 17,247 18,342 19,544 99,478

Table 5.3 Discounted Costs, Benefits, Net Benefits (millions â&#x201A;Ź) for Europe

(Statistics sourced from: PriceWaterhouseCoopers , 2004)

Cost Benefit NPV cost-benefit ratio Urban 137,505 228,173 1.69 50,854 59,663 Rural 1.14 Total 188,358 287,836 1.54 Table 5.4 NPV cost-benefit ratio

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5.3 Costs 5.3.1 Ingredients of Costing The total costs for Broadband deployment for each year are based on the forecasted number of users. They include capital expenditure, infrastructure depreciated over a 325 year period. The costs also include operating costs based on the number of Broadband users in a particular year. These include ongoing network operating costs and customer services.

The costs of these services will fall as a result of high subscriber take-up, increased integration of telecommunications systems between Service Providers and the streamlining of operating Broadband services. However, there are factors that will cause costs to escalate. They include more technology for the delivery of new services, the rollout of Broadband in areas where there is a low ROI.

The annual cost of providing Broadband is shown in Figure 5.1 below. It is a percentage of capital expenditure.

Staff and associated expense for installation and commissioning Ireland

9%

Maintenance, operations and network management systems 5%

Staff and associated expense for ongoing operations 9%

Figure 5.1 Operating costs as a percentage of Capital Expenditure.

Source: (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2003)

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5.3.2 Cost of providing Broadband IBEC‟s TIF Director said in October 2007 that “a new TIF survey estimated that private industry will spend over €3.2 billion in telecoms infrastructure over the next 6 years.

Including Government investment of over €400 million, this will bring total spend to an unprecedented €3.6 billion over the period” (IBEC, 2007). This is a pivotal piece of information in this study because the net benefit can be calculated from it.

Scaled and aligned against a mathematical model of costings for the rollout of Broadband in European countries that are similar to Ireland.

Optimal Mix of Technology ADSL FTTB HFC BFWA Satellite Total

€ (million) 2,869 367 227 104 32 3,600

Table 5.5 Spread of Expenditure on Technologies.

Source: (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2003)

5.4 Benefits 5.4.1 Background to Calculating Benefits PriceWaterhouseCoopers endeavoured to calculate an objective estimate of the economic benefits of Broadband connectivity. In arriving at this figure they stated as “with any such forecasting exercise, there is a significant degree of uncertainty involved” (PriceWaterhouseCoopers 2004). In this study, just as in the

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PriceWaterhouseCoopers report, a conservative approach has been adopted to ensure that economic benefits are not over stated.

There are three sources that combine to give the economic benefits. These are direct benefits, network externalities and other external effects.

Total Economic Benefits =

Direct Benefits + Network Externalities + Other External Effects.

The direct economic benefits result from the difference between the net benefit to the producer and the consumer against the cost of providing Broadband. Direct benefits principally arise, not from having a Broadband connection, but from the applications that migrate over the Broadband network. Examples of this range from simple Internet browsing, and e-mail to music and video downloads. PriceWaterhouseCoopers admits â&#x20AC;&#x153;it is difficult to evaluate this economic benefit directly as there is limited information on the price and quantity of individual applications that are provided over Broadbandâ&#x20AC;?

(PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2003).

The network externalities accrue to people other than the consumers. For example, booking flights can be carried out over the Internet, thus reducing processing costs for the airlines. Network externalities are benefits that suppliers receive for providing services over the Broadband network. These benefits can be calculated by measuring the costs that are saved when people choose to receive these services over Broadband instead of using traditional means.

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The other external effects that yield economic benefits are indirect benefits. For example, a tele-worker does not have to drive to work, thus reducing the amount of pollution by travelling to work in the car. Indirect benefits result from a reduction in pollution due to less travelling which can be quantifiable. There are other additional indirect benefits which are more difficult or impossible to quantify e.g. increased education or a reduction in illiteracy.

These benefits are arrived at by using Net Present Value (NPV). This is necessary to do because money received today is worth more now than the same money received at some future date. That means that future expenditure and income must be discounted to arrive at its present value. This is essential because there is huge capital investment initially in building the Broadband infrastructure and it tapers off as the years pass. The opposite is the case for income. It rises with the passage of years. It is then necessary to use NPV to arrive at an honest financial appraisal (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2003: 130).

5.4.2 Calculating the Financial Benefits of Broadband Following a major report in 1998 by the Information Society of Broadband it stated that Broadband may add 1.2% to Gross National Produce (GNP) in Ireland over 20 years. It expected net employment of over 85,000 could result within 10 years of Broadband adoption (Forfas, 1998). In 2006 that would add â&#x201A;Ź1.8 billion to GNP.

While this figure shows that Broadband benefits Ireland economically it does not give the net benefit. That estimate is also dated. One method used in this study for

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calculating the net benefit is using the NPV cost-benefit ratio figure and the optimal expenditure.

IBEC believes that €3.6 billion needs to be spent over the next 6 years on Broadband infrastructure. This includes investment from both private and public sources (IBEC, 2007). Table 5.6 shows the NPV of the net benefit that it will yield.

Cost NPV cost-benefit ratio Benefit Net Benefit €3.6 billion 1.54 €5.5 billion €1.9 billion Table 5.6 It will yield a net benefit of €1.9 billion over the 6 years of expenditure.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers suggested another way of calculating the net benefit. On average, the net benefit per capita over the initial ten years of Broadband rollout is approximately €66 per annum across Europe. This would realise a figure of €1.6 billion for Ireland.

A report by the renowned Connected Nation offers another method of calculating the net benefit for Ireland. It assessed the net benefit of Broadband rollout for each state in the USA. Kentucky analysis was chosen for this study because its population is just over 4 million making it similar to Ireland. It is primarily a rural state.

It was one of the lowest states in the US for Broadband penetration in 2002. By 2004 60% of the residents had access to Broadband. By the end of 2007 that figure had reached 95%. But the state Government mounted an aggressive program to promote the spread of Broadband. This resulted in one of the highest adoption rates in the US. Consumers were surveyed for savings in time, miles driven, and health care advantages.

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Then job creation and retention were calculated. The annual net benefits amount to €1.1 billion.

Table 5.5 details the benefits received in Kentucky. The euro figures were converted from dollars by using the current conversion rate i.e. 0.665642.

Annual Benefits derived from €000,000, 000, Annual Net Job Growth from the increase in Broadband 32 Direct annual income growth from the increase in Broadband 706.6 Average annual Health Costs saved 6.2 Average annual hours saved 60.6 Average annual mileage costs saved 52,785 Annual value of hours saved 282.8 Average annual lbs of CO2 emissions cut 46,172 Value of carbon offsets 0.2 1,056.4

Total annual economic benefit Table 5.7 Economic benefit of Broadband rollout.

Source: (Connected Nation Inc, 2008)

An average saving of more than €133 by using Broadband for health-care services.

Kentucky residents drove more than 100 times fewer hours per month because of transactions done online (Connect Nation, Inc., 2008). The annual growth in jobs seems somewhat high, especially when contrasted against the Information Society figure above.

The calculations for net benefit from the rollout of Broadband vary from €1.1 to €1.6 to €1.9 billion. Taking into account the degrees of uncertainty in making forecasts these figures can be considered to be close. It shows a very favourable return on investment.

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5.5 Breakdown How would the â&#x201A;Ź3.6 billion be spent? Table 5.8 answers that question. The â&#x201A;Ź3.6 billion is dispersed across the different years for both urban and rural Ireland. Table 5.8 was aligned against a table for a group of similar European countries to Ireland. The figures were then correspondingly scaled down to match the expenditure in Ireland from 20082013. The expenditure with the matching benefits for each year is outlined.

Period Urban Costs Benefits Net Benefits Rural Costs Benefits Net benefits

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Total

300 525 225

361 615 254

419 699 280

474 777 303

524 850 326

566 916 350

2,644 4,382 1,738

109 122 13

130 146 16

151 176 25

171 202 31

189 226 37

204 248 44

954 1,120 166

Total Costs 409 491 570 645 713 770 Benefits 647 761 875 979 1,076 1,164 Net benefits 238 270 305 334 363 394 Table 5.8 Urban/Rural Costs, Benefits, and Net Benefits (Euro millions)

3,598 5,502 1,904

Table 5.9 below shows, that the benefits per subscriber are comparable for rural and urban regions. However the costs per subscriber are significantly higher in rural areas due to the remote location of the subscribers. Therefore the net benefits per subscriber are low. This means that the remotest rural areas require public sector support.

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2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Urban Costs Benefits Net Benefits Rural Costs Benefits Net Benefits

246 429 183

249 425 176

250 417 167

252 413 161

252 409 157

250 405 155

386 432 46

369 413 44

355 412 57

347 409 62

337 403 66

329 399 70

Total 293 Costs 461 Benefits Net Benefits 168

290 451 160

288 441 153

285 433 147

282 425 143

277 419 141

Table 5.9 Cost benefit analysis per subscriber.

Source: (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2003)

5.6 Summary In 2005, the Irish Exporters Association said that the slow roll-out of Broadband will put Irish Exporters at a serious disadvantage (Irish Exporters Association, 2005). In April 2007, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources was more vociferous when considering no development of Broadband. He said it would be â&#x20AC;&#x153;disastrous for us as a country and as an economy,â&#x20AC;? (Dempsey, N. (2007) cited in Taylor, C. 2007). The findings of this study have shown that their views were well founded.

This chapter has shown that there are financial net benefits to be achieved by further developing Broadband both in urban and rural Ireland. It has shown that there are greater net benefits to be gained in urban areas. While there will be a lower return on investment in rural areas there will be some remote regions that will have a negative return as shown in chapter 3. This cost-benefit analysis shows that stakeholders, consumers, and Ireland as a whole will profit from the further rollout of Broadband.

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6 Conclusion The rationale for this dissertation places the spotlight primarily on potential Broadband users. That spotlight is held very firmly in the hands of the Service Providers who scan it across all potential consumers. They want to see who exactly those prospective customers are according to age and economic status. They want to know where they reside, how often they will require Broadband connectivity. But most importantly, they want to know how many potential customers there are, the possible uses with which they will employ Broadband connections and the frequency with which they will access it. In short Service Providers require an analysis of the potential future target market.

The aim of this dissertation seeks to calculate the net benefits of rolling out Broadband.

The opening parameter in arriving at this estimate is knowing the target market, and being able to forecast future Irish Broadband needs. While Service Providers see a possible opportunity, their financial investors want to see the financial net return. The study opens by examining that opportunity.

It recognised that Ireland was about 18 months behind the most developed countries in Europe in launching Broadband to the general public in 2004. Even though Ireland has been disadvantaged in this regard

6.1 Forecasting usage The Irish people have demonstrated an eagerness to connect to the Internet. They have also demonstrated that they want to move from the traditional dial-up connection to high speed Broadband.

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All Irish Broadband graphs since 2004 show a marked annual increase relating to household PC ownership, Internet connections, Broadband connections, frequency of use, age profiles, economic status, variety and size of content downloaded, locations of usage, and geographical usage. In this race for more Broadband connections Dublin is leading with Broadband accounting for 53% of its Internet connections. It is the only county to have more Broadband than non-Broadband connections. Dublin and its neighbouring counties have the greatest level of Broadband rollout. It is also a fact that they have the highest level of PC ownership and take up of Broadband connectivity.

There is less Broadband rollout, less PC ownership and less Broadband connectivity the further West one moves away from Dublin. This is particularly true of the BMW area. It is arguable that Broadband rollout increases the marginal utility of the PC. They are insatiably feeding off each other.

The clear indications are that Broadband use is growing across the whole of Ireland.

This fact was further supported by recent findings from the primary research conducted amongst non-nationals and IT experts.

When the Service Providers cast their spotlight on businesses there is a growing adoption of Broadband. The utilisation of Broadband for their commercial purposes has only shown a moderate increase. This is expected to rise in future years when consumers use Broadband more confidently, particularly for E-Commerce purposes.

Investors, while interested in past and current Broadband usage are much more interested in future Broadband needs. A number of sources have been used in this study to forecast that need.

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Firstly, a dial â&#x20AC;&#x201C;up connection is inadequate to deal with the growing demands of IT users. Anti-virus updates are an essential routine task for PC users. They can take over 30 minutes with a regular dial-up connection the same task can be done in less than two minutes with Broadband. Users are dissatisfied with this level of performance.

Secondly, UK consumers have responded very positively to video services over the Internet by connecting to the more expensive Broadband connection. Dublin users have responded in a like manner to a similar pilot scheme.

60% of Internet users in OECD countries use Broadband. Ireland is lagging significantly behind EU countries, including Northern Ireland where Broadband is widely deployed. These countries have shown greater Broadband availability means greater connectivity.

Irish IT experts forecast increased demand for greater Broadband speeds in order to cope with new services that are becoming available online. These include phone calls over the Internet, video on demand, real-time Internet games and television to mention but a few. Eircom Chairman, Pierre Danon supports this claim when he stated in 2007 that the traditional copper wires are too slow for future needs, instead fibre optic cable is required.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers has conducted research throughout Europe on future Broadband take-up. They have forecasted that the number of Broadband connections will increase throughout all sectors of Irish society in line with the rest of Europe. Their statistics show that this is true of both residential and business users in urban and rural

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Ireland. Most householders will require basic Broadband connectivity. There are about 25% of householders that will require premium Broadband packages.

The increase in the number of business Broadband connections will be moderate. There will be an increased demand by businesses for higher Broadband speeds.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers forecast that there will be 97% availability of Broadband in urban Ireland with 74% of the households taking it up. Rural Ireland will have 78% availability with 39% take up. After 2010, demand for services at over 10Mbps will be growing among business users.

All the evidence, both internationally and nationally point to growing Broadband needs up to the year 2013 in Ireland. This compels both the Government and Services Providers to collaborate in planning and working to ensure that an adequate Broadband network is available to the Irish consumers.

6.2 Strategic Plan This leads to the second issue which all Service Providers must address in mutual collaboration so as to provide the most cost effective rollout of Broadband. Otherwise they could not provide affordable Broadband to consumers unless in densely populated areas. Ideally what is needed is cooperation by Service Providers at the infrastructural level. At this level they need to plan together, offer open access to their infrastructure, and build them so that they are technology neutral, meaning that all infrastructures are compatible with each other.

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The main stakeholders providing the rollout of Broadband are the Service Providers and the Government. The Government and its agencies have also got the added role of overseeing its implementation and administration.

There is an enormous cost in providing the infrastructure for rolling out Broadband. It is not financially feasible for each Service Provider to install duplicate infrastructures throughout the country to supply consumers. This duplication would lead to unnecessary waste e.g. each provider digging up the same road. It would lead to unacceptably high charges for the consumer or there would be only one provider, thus allowing a monopoly to exist and no competitive pricing for the consumer.

In order to avoid the creation of monopolies and develop open markets with competition for consumers the European Commission has directed that all infrastructures be made available by its owners to competitors. The incumbent Eircom has resisted implementing this EC directive since it is the owner of most of the infrastructure. By allowing competing Service Providers use its infrastructure it would loose market share.

Since Eircom is acting as a wholesaler to other Service Providers and as a retailer to the consumer there would appear to be a clash of interests. Some feel it should be split letting the infrastructure be managed by the wholesale side of the company. Others suggested that a Government agency should take control of all Broadband infrastructures and pay an annual rent to their owners. All those that would require them would rent them back off this agency.

The telecommunications regulator ComReg has been described as inept for its failure to unbundle the local loop i.e. the copper wire running from the exchange to customersâ&#x20AC;&#x;

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residences. This would allow Eircom competitors to offer Broadband services by installing their technology in Eircom exchanges. This has been cited as the main obstacle to developing greater Broadband availability at lower prices for the consumer.

Another failure in planning is the Government‟s MANs. One of the IT experts in the primary research described it as a waste of €100 million of taxpayers‟ money. The EC has criticized it for giving a poor return for such a larger investment. At a technical level critics have said that it is poorly integrated into the current national infrastructural system and difficult for customers to connect to.

Similar criticisms can be levied against GBS. They were meant to be community initiatives that would develop wireless Broadband in communities with less than 1,500 people from Government funding. Even though aspirations were high they failed to deliver because of administrative issues.

NDP 2007-2013 has set aside €435 million for Broadband development. A large portion of that is expected to be earmarked for NBS. This is a Government funded initiative to bring Broadband to communities where it is not commercially viable. Broadband Service Providers are competing for that contract.

Central to criticisms of the Government are their solo runs at rolling out Broadband.

There is a need for an integrated strategic plan for Ireland. The core of this plan needs to be the development of the Broadband infrastructure, integrating all parts of it more effectively, and having open access to all of it by Service Providers. From this strategic plan local initiatives would feed into it effectively and efficiently. Once plans are agreed

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upon and/or a directive from the Irish or European Parliaments then ComReg needs to have the muscle to get adherence to them.

6.3 Proposing an infrastructural plan Once an overall plan has been developed and agreed upon by the Government and Service Providers then the next issue that needs to be addressed is identifying and implementing the different technologies to connect consumers with the National infrastructure. This is the third main issue that Service Providers need to address in rolling out Broadband to the consumer.

There are principally six basic technologies that can be used to deploy Broadband connections to the consumer they are: Satellite, BFWA, hybrid fibre coaxial, 3G mobile services, Wi-Fi hotspots, fibre optic cable and telephone copper wire lines.

There are three main factors to be considered when connecting the consumer to the Internet. They are the consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x; geographical location, the Broadband speed required by the consumer coupled with the cost of deploying suitable and affordable technologies.

The ideal scenario is making available high speed Broadband connections to consumers in densely populated areas. In such a situation fibre optic cable could realistically be used. This is capable of delivering speeds of up to 100 Mbps at an affordable price.

The reality is very different with consumers residing in sparsely populated rural areas. It is not commercially viable for Service Providers to deploy Broadband to these places.

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dwellers. A number of Service Providers are competing for that nationwide contract. A BFWA is expected to be the primary technology to connect these consumers. Satellite is the only other technology that can feasibly connect these consumers to the Broadband network. The primary disadvantages of it are; it is very expensive and experiences latency issues.

For consumers in populated rural areas there are two choices, the BFWA and 3G mobile services. As an interim measure they are satisfactory. While they come at an affordable price they offer low speeds when contrasted with fibre optic cable. It is envisaged that more and more of the landlines in these areas will be replaced with fibre optic cable to meet the growing demands of consumers in the long term.

For the nomadic Broadband user there are hotspots around the country to connect onto.

Eircom has 1,000 such connections which its Broadband customers can freely connect onto. Restaurants, hotels, public transport, public buildings etc are beginning to offer it to promote their business. If consumers move towards requiring more ubiquitous Broadband connectivity then either 3G mobile services or fixed hotspots will grow in demand.

The optimal choice of media for providing Internet to the urban dweller is either DSL i.e. a mixture of copper phone wire and fibre, or hybrid fibre cable from the cable television providers. Both technologies run fibre optic cable from their cable out towards the consumer. For the last mile they will run the cheaper prices cable or copper wire to the consumerâ&#x20AC;&#x;s building. If consumers demand greater speeds then it will

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become feasible to run fibre optic cables entirely out to the consumers. That need will grow when more services are offered over the Internet.

Technology can make Broadband universally available to all Irish people. The Government will have to sponsor it in remote areas with Service Providers installing it.

It is commercially viable to rollout Broadband to urban and populated rural areas. If high levels of speed are required in a large concentrated area of Ireland then there will be a return on investment for the Service Provider.

6.4 Quantifying Net Benefit This study opened with a clear aim of calculating the net benefit from the rollout of Broadband. Even though this net benefit will accrue to the whole Irish nation, it is the Government and Service Providers that seek to know this benefit. If both these stakeholders see a net benefit accruing then they will both want the further expansion of Broadband rollout.

This study has shown that the necessary technology is currently available to connect all households and businesses with Broadband. Though it is commercially viable for the Service Providers to make Broadband available to the vast majority of the country there are remote regions that need to be publicly funded.

It has been demonstrated that competitively priced services are best achieved when the Service Providers and Government collaborate in formulating a strategic plan for the effective use of all Broadband infrastructure.

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The challenge of this study was to calculate the resulting financial benefit from the cost of rolling out Broadband. The cost of rolling out Broadband, according to IBEC‟s TIF, needs to be €3.6 billion from 2007 to 2013.

The accurate calculating of the benefits of Broadband is difficult to forecast with certainty. This study uses two reports from PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Europe and Connected Nation in the USA to calculate the net benefits. They achieve this by calculating the benefits that would accumulate to a number of consumers. They did this on the basis of time saved less commuting and jobs created. These would have included the benefits received from services like entertainment, health care, shopping, banking etc.

Using these resources the net benefit was calculated by three different methods. They produced three answers. Ireland would benefit €1.1, €1.6 and €1.9 billion annually.

Even though there is a large variation in these answers they are still close enough to offer a reliable forecast of the net benefits from the full rollout of Broadband in Ireland.

6.5 Further Research

There are a number of areas where further research could be carried out: 1. How much has the marginal utility of the computer increased with the advent of the Broadband? Is the presence of Broadband the driver for in people purchasing PCs? 2. Contrast ComReg with other telecommunications regulators

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3. How could the Government mount an aggressive program to promote the spread of Broadband?

4. Evaluate how much consumerâ&#x20AC;&#x;s would pay for the high end usage of Broadband services e.g. teleconferencing, videos on demand, after demonstrating it.

5. What is the marginal return as investment in Broadband is increased?

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7 Reference Material 7.1 Appendices Appendix A County analysis of Internet usage

Number of private households in permanent housing units in each County classified by personal computer ownership and access to the Internet, 2006.

Private Households (In Permanent Housing Units) 2006 Ranking

% of PC owners County

% with PC

% Internet

for having PC

with Broadband

State

57%

82%

35%

1

Kildare

65%

83%

37%

2

Wicklow

64%

84%

35%

3

Meath

63%

83%

29%

4

Dublin

61%

85%

53%

5

Clare

57%

82%

24%

6

Louth

56%

80%

31%

7

Kilkenny

56%

81%

24%

8

Cork

56%

83%

32%

9

Galway

56%

82%

31%

10

Waterford

55%

83%

36%

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Reference Material

11

Westmeath

54%

78%

25%

12

Carlow

54%

77%

24%

13

Sligo

54%

82%

22%

14

Wexford

54%

78%

19%

15

Laois

54%

77%

22%

16

Limerick

53%

80%

30%

17

Tipperary North 52%

79%

21%

18

Offaly

52%

75%

20%

19

Donegal

51%

78%

19%

20

Roscommon

51%

79%

18%

21

Monaghan

51%

78%

20%

22

Kerry

50%

82%

22%

23

Mayo

50%

81%

20%

24

Cavan

50%

79%

18%

25

Tipperary South 50%

81%

25%

26

Leitrim

49%

79%

16%

27

Longford

48%

78%

21%

Source: http://www.cso.ie/statistics/pcnetaccessbyprovcountycity2002.htm

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Reference Material Appendix B

(2006) Percentage of Households with Ranking Country

Internet Access

Broadband

Ranking

Connection EU25*

52

32

1

Iceland

83

72

1

2

Netherlands

80

66

2

3

Denmark

79

63

3

4

Sweden

77

51

6

5

Luxembourg 70

44

8

6

Norway

69

57

4

7

Germany

67

34

11

8

Finland

65

53

5

9

United

9

Kingdom

63

44

10

Belgium

54

48

7

11

Slovenia

54

34

12

12

Austria

52

33

13

13

Ireland

50

13

22

14

Estonia

46

37

10

15

Latvia

42

23

17

16

France

41

30

14

17

Italy

40

16

21

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Reference Material

18

Spain

39

29

15

19

Cyprus

37

12

23

20

Poland

36

22

18

21

Lithuania

35

19

20

22

Portugal

35

24

16

23

Hungary

32

22

19

24

Slovakia

27

11

24

25

Greece

23

4

25

Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=STAT/06/146&format=HTML&ag

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Reference Material Appendix C

(2006) Percentage of People who use the Internet at least once a week Total Men

Women

16-24

25-54

55-74

years old

years old

years old

EU25*

47

51

43

73

54

20

1

Iceland

84

86

82

96

90

59

2

Sweden

80

84

76

94

89

56

3

Denmark

78

80

76

94

86

56

4

Norway

77

80

73

97

84

48

5

Netherlands

76

82

71

96

86

46

6

Finland

71

72

70

94

82

38

7

Luxembourg 65

76

55

89

71

37

8

Germany

59

65

54

83

69

30

9

Belgium

58

62

54

82

67

27

10

UK

57

63

51

72

66

33

11

Estonia

56

57

56

90

64

12

Austria

55

61

49

80

63

24

13

Slovenia

47

51

42

81

54

12

14

Latvia

46

47

45

86

50

12

15

Ireland

44

45

42

59

48

17

16

Slovakia

43

47

39

72

47

9

17

Hungary

42

43

40

74

47

14

18

Spain

39

44

35

70

45

10

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Reference Material 19

France

39

42

37

71

47

20

Lithuania

38

38

37

77

39

7

21

Poland

34

36

32

71

35

7

22

Italy

31

36

26

55

37

9

23

Portugal

31

35

28

68

34

6

24

Cyprus

29

32

27

55

31

7

25

Greece

23

27

18

47

27

4

Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=STAT/06/146&format=HTML&ag

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Reference Material Appendix D

(2006) Percentage of Enterprises with Ranking Country

Internet Access

EU25*

94

Broadband Connection 75

Ranking

1

Finland

99

89

2

2

Iceland

99

95

1

3

Denmark

98

83

8

4

Austria

98

69

15

5

Netherlands

97

82

9

6

Slovenia

96

75

12

7

Sweden

96

89

3

8

Belgium

95

84

7

95

69

16

Czech 9 Republic 10

Germany

95

73

13

11

France

94

86

5

12

Ireland

94

61

17

13

Norway

94

86

6

14

Spain

93

87

4

15

Italy

93

70

14

16

Luxembourg 93

76

11

17

Slovakia

61

18

93

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Reference Material United 18

92

77

10

Kingdom 19

Poland

89

46

22

20

Lithuania

88

57

20

21

Cyprus

86

55

21

22

Latvia

80

59

19

Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=STAT/06/146&format=HTML&ag

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Reference Material Appendix E

Questionnaire for Experts on the future of the Internet Q1.

Will current Irish Broadband usage increase, especially the volume of data traffic?

Yes [ ] No [ ] If yes, how much do you estimate in the next 5-10 years___________ ________________________________________________________

Q2.

What items of Broadband usage do you expect to see the greatest increases in? ________________________________________________________ Why __________________________________________________

Q3.

What effect will these increases have? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

Q4.

What Internet speeds will the Irish consumer need to have in 5-10 years?

Q5.

________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Will the contention rate be reduced or abolished for broadband customers in 5-10 years? ____________Why____________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

Q6.

Is the current physical infrastructure able to meet the future demand that you expect?

Yes [ ] No [ ] If no, what changes do you believe need to be introduced? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

Q7.

Should Irish consumers have access to free wireless access points (Hotspots)? ______________Why______________________________________ ________________________________________________________

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Reference Material Q8.

What opportunities do you see for Irish Internet stakeholders who are considering investing over the next 5-10 years? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

Q9.

What threats do you see for Irish Internet stakeholders who are investing in the next 5-10 years? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

Q10. What obstacles do you see to the increased availability of higher quality Internet accessibility? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Q11. What benefits do you see accruing from the availability of higher quality Internet to the Irish economy? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Q12. Are there any other issues you believe are important to the development of an efficient and effective Internet service that will enhance the Irish economy? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Q13. What range of services will broadband will be used for in the future e.g. T.V.? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Q14. Who will or should pay for installing the backbone infrastructure? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Q15. What is the optimum backbone infrastructure? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Q16. Is there an overall backbone infrastructure plan? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Q17. How do MANs fit into the plan? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

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Reference Material Q18. Is there a plan to improve broadband takeup? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Q19. Is the infrastructure modelled on the UK, Scandinavian countries, or Korea? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Thank you for your time and cooperation in completing this questionnaire

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Reference Material Appendix F

Questionnaire for Non-nationals on their use of the Internet Q1.

What age group do you belong to?

16-24 [ ] 45-54 [ ]

Q2.

25-34 [ ] 55-64 [ ]

35-44 [ ] 65-74 [ ]

Please indicate your gender: Male [ ]

Female

[ ]

Q3.

What is you nationality?___________________________________

Q4.

How long have you been living in Ireland?_____________________

Q5.

Please indicate your economic status At Work [ ] Retired [ ]

Q6.

Home duties [ ]

No [ ]

If no to Q6 above, does any member of your household intend buying a computer within the next 2 years?

Yes [ ]

Q8.

Student [ ]

Do you have access to a computer where you live?

Yes [ ]

Q7.

Unemployed [ ] Other [ ]

No [ ]

Where do you access the Internet?

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t access it [ ] At Home [ ] At Work [ ] Internet Cafe [ ] College [ ] Other [ ], Please specify____________________________

Q9.

If you have no Internet access where you live does any member of your household intend installing the Internet?

Yes [ ]

No [ ]

Q10. If yes to Q9, when_____________________________________ Q11. What type of connection do you use when connecting to the Internet at home?

Dial Up [ ]

ISDN [ ]

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Broadband [ ]

Reference Material

Q12. If you ticked Dial up or ISDN in Q11 above, do you intend switching to broadband at home within the next?

Month 6 Months Year Later

[ [ [ [

] ] ] ]

Q13. Do you know the download speed of your broadband at home?

Yes [ ] No [ ] If yes, please specify_____________________ Q14. How often do you access the Internet?

Daily [ ]

Weekly [ ]

Monthly [ ] Less Often [ ]

Q15. How long do you spend online at any one time?

Less than 1 Hour 1 and < 2 Hours 2 and < 4 Hours 4 Hours or more

[ [ [ [

] ] ] ]

Q16. Which of the following activities do you perform online?

Activity Downloading Video Downloading Music Yahoo / MSN Messenger Games Chat rooms Other

[ [ [ [ [ [

] ] ] ] ] ]

Number of minutes spent on the activity at any one time ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ Please Specify_______________

Q17. Do you use Skype?

Yes [ ]

No [ ]

Q18. If yes to Q17 above, how often do you use it?

Daily [ ]

Weekly [ ]

Monthly [ ]

Less Often [ ]

Q19. How long do you spend online when using Skype?

Less than 1 Hour 1 and < 2 Hours 2 and < 4 Hours 4 Hours or more

[ [ [ [

] ] ] ]

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Reference material

Q20. Do you watch TV online?

Yes [ ]

No [ ]

Q21. If yes to Q20 above, do you watch Domestic TV or Foreign TV channels?

Domestic [ ]

Foreign [ ]

Both [ ]

Q22. How often do you watch TV online?

Daily [ ]

Weekly [ ]

Monthly [ ] Less Often [ ]

Q23. How long do you spend watching TV online at any one time?

Less than 1 Hour 1 and < 2 Hours 2 and < 4 Hours 4 Hours or more

[ [ [ [

] ] ] ]

Q24. Are you satisfied with your current download speed?

Satisfied Moderately Satisfied Unsatisfied

[ ] [ ] [ ]

Q25. How has your Internet behaviour changed over the past two years? _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Thank you for your time and cooperation in completing this questionnaire

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Reference material

7.2 Abbreviations

ADSL ADSL2 BFWA BMW BT BTEI CATV ComReg CSO DCMNR DSL EC ESA ESRI EU FTTC FTTH FTTK FTTU/B Gbps GBS GNP HCI HDSL HFC HSDPA IBEC ICT IPTV ISDN ISPs LAN LLU MAN Mbps NBS NDP NGA NGN NPV NTL ROI SME

Asymmetric digital subscriber line Enhanced ADSL â&#x20AC;&#x201C; greater bandwidth on short-mid length lines Broadband fixed wireless access Border, Midlands, and Western British Telecom Back to Education Initiative Cable Television Irish Communications Regulator Central Statistics Office Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Digital Subscriber Line European Commission European Space Agency Economic and Social Research Institute European Union fibre to telecommunication cabinets Fibre to the home fibre to the kerb fibre to the user / building Gigabits per second Group Broadband Scheme Gross National Produce Home Computing Initiative High-speed digital subscriber line Hybrid Fibre Coaxial high-speed download packet access Irish Business and Employers Confederation Information and Communication Technologies Internet Protocol Television (Television over the Internet) Integrated services digital network Internet Service Providers Local Area Network Local Loop Unbundling Metropolitan Area Network Megabits per second National Broadband Scheme National Development Plan Next Generation Access Next Generation Network Net Present Value National Transcommunications Limited Return on investment Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises

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Reference material TIF VDSL VOD VOIP VPN WLAN

Telecommunications and Internet Federation Very high speed digital subscriber line Video on Demand Voice over Internet Protocol (phone calls over the Internet) Virtual Private Networks Wide Local Area Network

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Reference material

7.3 Glossary Term

Explanation

1G

1G is a term refers to the first generation of mobile wireless phones. 1G is the generation where the basic analogue cellular phones were introduced to the market. 1G technology were introduced in the 1980s and continued until being replaced by 2G digital cellular phones. 1G mobile wireless phones used analogue radio signals where as 2G networks are digital.

2G

2G is a term refers to the second generation of mobile wireless phone systems. 2G networks are digital unlike 1G networks which use analogue system. The 2G systems were digital and were oriented to voice with only low speed data services.

3G

3G is a general term for the cellular phone system of the third generation. It provides the technology to users that require high-speed data transmission or multimedia services.

ADSL

Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a communications technology which allows an ordinary telephone to be used for high-speed (Broadband) communications. The fact that it is asymmetric makes it particularly useful for Internet access.

Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line is a type of digital subscriber line which offers two different data transfer speeds depending on whether the user is transmitting or receiving data. ADSL offers faster download speeds than upload speeds.

It takes advantage of the fact that Internet users receive more data from the Internet than they transmit.

Using the Internet usually involves a small request for information (an upload) from the user, followed by a large provision of information (a download) from the Internet e.g. checking for new email. For this reason, most access technologies are designed to provide higher download bandwidth (or speed) than upload bandwidth. These services are described as asymmetric. Asymmetric services are adequate for most home and SME requirements.

ADSL2

ADSL2+ or ADSL2Plus extends the capability of basic ADSL in data rates to 12 Mbit/s downstream and 3.5 Mbit/s upstream ADSL2+ or ADSL2Plus is notable for its maximum theoretical download speed of 24 Mbit/s. Actual speeds may reduce depending on line quality - usually the most significant factor in line quality is the distance from the exchange to the customer's equipment.

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Reference material Magnet Business has led the way with its ADSL2+ roll out over Eircom copper local loop. 10Mb Download and 1 Mb uploads represent the fastest Business Broadband available in the Irish market. Major cities like Limerick, Dublin, Waterford, Portlaoise, Cork, and Galway have it.

Smart Telecom offers ADSL2+ products to residential customers who are connected to any of their growing network of unbundled exchanges. Currently the company have service in at least 32 Irish exchanges covering large areas of most of the major cities in Ireland.

Always-On

Internet services are categorised as either dial-up or always-on.

Dial-up connections require a phone call to allow connection to the Internet. The connection is cut off when the phone call is ended.

Always-on services do not require a phone call. They are connected to the Internet all day or connect almost instantly.

Broadband services are considered always-on.

Analogue

Analogue refers to a signal which can take every value within a particular range. When we speak our voice produces frequencies and loudness levels which can take any value within a range of values. For example, the range of values loudness can take is a function of how loud or quiet we can speak.

Availability of Broadband Service

Availability of Broadband Service is the percentage of consumers that are provided with Broadband service.

Backbone

On the Internet or other wide area network, a backbone is a set of paths that local or regional networks connect to for longdistance interconnection.

Backhaul

Backhaul is an term used to describe how data is transmitted from a regional back to the centre of the telecommunications or data network. For example, to connect an e|net customer in Cork to one in Galway the data passes from the Cork MAN and is connected over backhaul links to Galway. These backhaul links are probably provided by many telecommunications operators.

Backhauling

Backhauling is the process of transporting voice and data traffic from a remote site to a central site.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth describes the capacity of a digital channel expressed in bits per second (bps). This is also referred to as the speed of the connection, how fast data transmissions can travel through the channel. A bandwidth of 64kbs is required

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Reference material to transmit a normal voice telephone conversation.

Bit

A bit is the smallest unit of information (data) a computer can process â&#x20AC;&#x201C; essentially a one or a zero. This unit is used for storing and transmitting information.

Broadband

Broadband refers to the broad or wide band of frequencies that is used to transmit information. Nowadays, it popularly refers to the capacity (or speed) of data transmissions. It is usually greater than 1Mbs (mega bits per second).

Byte

A byte is a collection of bits, originally variable in size but now usually eight bits in length.

Cable modem

A device that connects a computer to the Internet via a local cable network operator.

Co-Lo

Co-Lo is an abbreviation of co-location and refers to a location on the metropolitan area network where operators can site telecommunications and data equipment.

Contention

Most Broadband access services share a single connection path between many customers - this is referred to as contention. A contention ratio of 40:1 means that up to 40 customers are sharing the same connection. When usage is light, contention does not pose a problem. However, the quality of the connection can deteriorate if many customers use the connection at the same time. For example, if all 40 users are using a 1Mbps Broadband service at the same time, then the access speed is reduced to about 26ksps. In reality, this rarely occurs and is unlikely to significantly impact on home and Internet use. Users should be aware that peak usage times can seem slower because of network congestion. Most of the time, users should be able to connect to 75% - 90% of the top speed available at a location.

When signing up for a Broadband service, Service Providers will quote the contention rate for the service being provided.

Contention is an issue with services such as ADSL, satellite and wireless Broadband access. Since guaranteed fast Broadband access is often more critical to a business, many SMEs consider buying a Broadband service with a low contention ratio.

Data

Data is a technical term referring to the information that is transmitted across a network.

Digital

Digital refers to the use of a binary code (ones and zeros) to represent information. Digital signals are used in the majority of voice and data networks currently deployed.

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Diversity

Diversity is the ability to provide a backup service in the event of disruption or breakdown. In a fibre network this is normally achieved by placing an end user on a ring of fibre. This means if one side of the ring is broken data can continue to be transmitted through the second undamaged fibre.

Download

Download (or data downloaded) is any data retrieved from another computer on the Internet e.g. text, pictures or sound.

Viewing a page on the Internet is downloading data from another computer.

Downstream

Downstream refers to the capacity of a network reserved for carrying information or other signals from a server, exchange or controller to the user.

DSL

Digital subscriber line â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a family of similar technologies which allow ordinary telephone lines to be used for high speed Broadband communications. The family includes ADSL, HDSL, VDSL etc. It has the ability to move data over traditional copper telephone lines at speeds of up to 6 million bits per second. However the speed is dependent on the distance of the customer from the Service Provider.

Duct

Duct is the term for a pipe installed under ground into which fibre optic cable is installed.

Ecommerce

The ability to transact business over communications networks.

Ethernet

Ethernet is a packet-based computer networking technology for local area networks (LANs).

EU25

EU25 began in 1958 with Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands; Denmark, Ireland and United Kingdom joined in 1973; Greece joined in 1981; Spain and Portugal joined in 1986; Austria, Finland and Sweden joined in 1995; Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia joined in 2004.

Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007 to make it the EU27.

Fibre/fibre-optic

Fibre optic cable are strands of very pure glass that can carry far more information than copper wires over far greater distances.

FON

FON is the largest Wi-Fi community in the world. It is a community of people making Wi-Fi universal and free.

Group Broadband Scheme

The Group Broadband Scheme is co-funded by the Ecommerce and Communications Measures of the Border, Midlands and

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Reference material Western and Southern and Eastern Regional Operational Programmes of the National Development Plan 2000-2006 to install the Broadband infrastructure.

HDSL

High Speed Digital Subscriber Line.

Incumbent

The monopoly telecoms operator that existed in most countries prior to telecoms liberalisation. The incumbent is usually policed by a telecoms regulator to ensure that competing operators get fair access to its network.

Interconnect

A term to describe how operators connect their networks together.

Interconnection

The point at which one network hands over traffic to another network. The price and terms and conditions that apply to the handover are also referred to as interconnection.

Internet

The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x;s largest computer network, available to anybody with a PC, a modem, a telephone line and an access provider.

It supports the reading of text, graphic and video files and email exchange.

Intranet IP

Private network that uses the same technology as the Internet Internet Protocol - describes the technology which permits users to transmit and receive data across the Internet.

ISDN

Integrated services digital network â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the technical standard used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

ISP

An Internet Service Provider (ISP) supplies, or arranges to supply, a service that enables companies and individuals to access the Internet. An ISP may own the facilities it uses to deliver the service or it may use the facilities of another provider.

Jitter

Jitter is the slight movement of a transmission signal that can introduce errors and loss of synchronization. Jitter can be thought of as shaky pulses. More jitter will be encountered with longer transmission paths, transmission paths with higher deterioration of a signal and signals at higher data rates. Jitter mainly effects wireless and satellite connections.

Joint

Joint describes the location where fibre optic cables are jointed or spliced together.

Kbit/s or kbs

Kbit/s refers to kilobits per second. It is a measure of how many thousands of bits can travel between two points in a second i.e. the speed of a connection.

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Reference material LAN

LAN is a Local Area Network. It is a network connecting computers within a building or campus.

Latency

Latency is the delay that occurs along the transmission path.

Latency is a factor with satellite connections because the data must travel over large distances. Due to this, satellite systems are not suitable for businesses that require real-time delivery of information/data.

If an organisation requires such services, it is important to be aware that satellite will not provide this functionality.

However, satellite access is adequate for most home and SME uses of the Internet.

Leased line

A leased line is a telephone line that has been leased for private use. Typically, large companies rent leased lines from the telephone message carriers (such as Eircom) to interconnect different geographic locations in their company.

Local access

The connection between the customerâ&#x20AC;&#x;s premises and a point of presence on the exchange carrier.

Local loop

The local loop are the copper wires an incumbent has between its exchanges and its customers.

MAN

Metropolitan Area Network is a transmission network built within a metropolitan or city.

Mbit/s or Mbs

Mbit/s refers to Megabits per second. It is a measure of how many bits can travel between two points in a second i.e. the speed of a connection.

Megabit (Mbit or Mb)

A Bit is the term used to describe the smallest unit of data. It is a binary digit i.e. 0 or 1. 8 bits make up one Byte. 1Mb is a data unit of 1,048,576 bits, sometimes called 1 million bits. A Gigabit (Gb) is 1,000 Megabits. Internet speed are usually quoted in Mb/sec. Broadband speeds usually begin at 1Mb/sec and climb to the very high speed of 100Mb/sec.

Megabyte (MB)

Megabyte (MB) is the term used to describe a unit of data.

1MB is a data unit of 1,048,576 bytes, sometimes called 1 million bytes. A Gigabyte (GB) is 1,000 Megabytes. A user can view approximately 20 pages on the Internet for each MB of download. An average four minute MP3 (music file, a song) is approximately 4 MB. A five-minute movie trailer can be as much as 30 MB.

Mobile

Mobile is an abbreviation commonly used for mobile cellular communications. It also refers to mobile telephone networks.

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Reference material Modem

Modem is an abbreviation for Modulator â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Demodulator. It is equipment that converts digital signals to analogue signals and vice versa allowing digital devices such as computers to communicate using analogue links such as telephone lines.

In the case of a home PC connecting to the Internet, the modem translates the digital signal from the PC into an analogue signal suitable for transmission down the copper pair to the telephone exchange.

Modem speeds

The speed or â&#x20AC;&#x17E;data rateâ&#x20AC;&#x; of a modem is measured by the number of kilobits or megabits of data it can transmit per second. This is expressed as kilobits per second (Kbps). The more Kbps transferred, the faster a user will download pages or other material such as music and email from the Internet.

The most commonly used dial-up modems have a maximum data rate of 56 Kbps. This is the maximum rate that a user can connect to an ISP and the Internet when using a dial-up connection. This is the maximum rate, not a guaranteed rate. It is not a speed that is normally encountered due to a number of technical reasons.

The most commonly used Broadband services have data speeds of 1Mbps. Faster Broadband services are also available.

1 Mbps is not always a guaranteed service. The actual speed that a user experiences may be lower because the Broadband connection may be shared. The contention ratio is the maximum number of subscribers that may share a connection.

For example, the contention ratio may vary from 1:1. In this case the user is guaranteed that there are the only one person using the 1Mbps service. With a contention rate of 48:1 up to 48 users may be sharing the same 1Mbps service at one time.

Narrowband

Narrowband is a network or circuit capacity of less than 64kbit/s.

National Broadband Scheme

The National Broadband Scheme (NBS) was launched in May 2007. Its aim is to provide Broadband services to certain target areas in Ireland in which Broadband services are not available or are unlikely to be available.

Next Generation Networking (NGN) is a broad term to describe some key architectural evolutions in telecommunication and access networks that will be deployed over the next 5-10 years.

Optic fibre or fibre is a medium used to transmit data and is made of very pure glass. Unlike copper which transmits electrical signals, the data is transmitted down the fibre in the form of modulated light using special lasers.

Next Generation Networking

Optic Fibre

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Reference material Optic Fibre Pairs

A pair of fibres is required in a network, one pair to transmit data and another to receive data.

Peering

Peering is the process by which Internet operators of similar size exchange traffic without charging each other. Where operators are not similar then one has to pay the other to handle its traffic.

Penetration of Broadband Service

Penetration of Broadband Service is the percentage take-up of the Broadband service by consumers to whom the service is available.

PoP

Point of Presence. A location where Service Providers site equipment on the edge of their network close to the end user.

QoS

Quality of service refers to how good the service provided by an operator actually is. It covers technical issues such as failing to connect calls and dropping calls, as well as how quickly an operator responds to requests from the customer.

Regulation

Regulation is the process by which a government agency ensures that a complicated market like telecoms behaves as if it were a competitive market while one player, the incumbent, has an extremely powerful position in that market Resilience is the ability to provide a backup service in the event of disruption or breakdown. In a fibre network this is normally achieved by placing an end user on a ring of fibre.

This means if one side of the ring is broken data can continue to be transmitted through the second undamaged fibre.

Resilience

Satellite

A satellite is hardware in space which receives signals from the earth and beams them to another part of the earth.

SDH

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy is a data transmission technology providing high data transfer speeds i.e. the minimum transmission speed is 155Mbs.

SDSL

Some advanced business uses of the Internet, like two-way video conferencing, require the same bandwidth in both directions. In these circumstances, symmetric services such as leased lines or SDSL (Symmetric digital subscriber line) are required.

Service Level/Availability

Service level or availability is the percentage of time that the connection is guaranteed to be available for use. Businesses selecting a Broadband service often look for what is known in industry terms as the six 9s. The service is available 99.9999% of the time.

SP

SP refers to the Service Provider. It is the provider of a

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Reference material telecoms service. An SP may not have its own network but uses the network of another organisation to provide its service.

Splice

Phrase used to describe how fibres are connected together in joints. The maximum practical single length of fibre is about 2,000 metres so joints and splices are required to build a fibre optic network.

Spur

Phrase used to describe a fibre-optic network connection to an end user which does not have resilience or diversity. This normally means that the fibre entering and leaving the customerâ&#x20AC;&#x;s premises is placed in the same duct and follows the same route to and from the network. If the fibre in the Spur is broken then the end user no longer has access to the network.

Streaming

Streaming media is the verb that refers to the manner of delivering audio and video media. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather than to the medium itself. It is usually distributed over telecommunications networks. It is constantly received by the end-user while it is being delivered by the provider.

Sub-Duct

Sub-duct describes tubes inserted into ducts through which fibre-optic cable is run.

Technology neutral

Technology neutral refers to all Broadband technologies -wired and wireless -- that can satisfactorily handle services such as VoIP (Internet telephony), VPN (virtual private network) and online gaming.

Triple Play Service

In telecommunications, the triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of the two Broadband services, highspeed Internet access and television, and one narrowband service, telephone, over a single Broadband connection.

Unbundling

Local loop unbundling means that rival retail companies take control of Eircomâ&#x20AC;&#x;s landlines running between phone exchanges and homes so as to supply Broadband services.

Eircom is paid by the rivals for the use of the landlines.

Upstream

Upstreaming is the capacity of a network reserved for carrying information or other signals from the user to a server, exchange or controller.

USO

Universal Service Obligation guarantees that a basic fixed line telephone service is available to consumers at an affordable price under EU and Irish laws. Currently, Eircom is the Universal Service Provider (USP).

Video on demand

Video on demand (VOD) systems allow users to select and

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Reference material (VOD)

watch video content over a network as part of an interactive television system. VOD systems either “stream” content, allowing viewing in real time, or “download” it in which the program is brought in its entirety to the computer before viewing starts. The latter is more appropriately termed “store and forward”. The more popular VOD systems use the streaming approach, whereby a user buys or selects a movie or television program and it begins to play on the computer system almost instantaneously.

Videoconference

A videoconference is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. It differs from videophone in that it is designed to serve a conference rather than individuals.

Voice

Voice is the term used to describe speech communication over a network.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a protocol or method used for the transmission of voice through the Internet. “VoIP” is pronounced voyp.

VPN

Virtual private network is a service that looks like a private network to the customer but which is delivered over a shared network.

Wholesale

Wholesale refers to the sale of telecommunication services to another party who is not the final consumer of the services.

WiMAX

WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access. It is a non-line-of-sight wireless transmission system.

Wireless access

Wireless access is access via a system that operates locally without wires.

xDSL

xDSL is a term used to describe the different types of digital subscriber line technologies currently available e.g. SDSL, HDSL, VDSL and ADSL.

xxvi

Reference material

7.4 References

Book

Kurose, J. F. and Ross, K. W. (2005), Computer Networking - A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet (3rd Edition ), Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-321-26976-4

Conferences

Norton, Professor J. (2003) “Get Connected” Commission for Communications Regulation National Conference, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, Ireland.

Telecommunications and Internet Federation, (2007) “Beyond Broadband” TIF Annual Conference, Mansion House, Dublin, Ireland. The debate panellists are: Neil Parkinson, CEO, Irish Broadband; Conal Henry, CEO, e-net; Colm Piercy, CEO, Digiweb; Niall Hogan, General Manager, ESB Telecoms; Iain MacDonald, CEO, Perlico; Gary Keogh, MD, COLT Telecom Ireland Ltd; Derek Daly, MD, InterFusion Networks; Vern Kennedy, CEO, Magnet Networks; Rex Comb, CEO, Eircom; Robert Finnegan, CEO, 3 Ireland; Chris Clark, CEO, BT Ireland; Robert Dunn, CEO, UPC Ireland; John Riordan, CEO, Smart Telecom; Charles Butterworth, CEO, Vodafone; Mike Short, VP R&D, Telefonica O2 Europe.

Legislation – Bill

Ross, S. (2007) Broadband Bill.

xxvii

Reference material Magazines

Farinone, C. (2007) „European Parliament back regional Broadband‟, The Brussels Magazine, September, Volume 24, No. 263.

French, A, (2008) „What‟s Coming Next, Expert predictions for 2008‟, PC Live, January, 7.

Maguire, A (2008) „What‟s Coming Next, Expert predictions for 2008‟, PC Live, January, 7.

Mulley, D. (2008) „What‟s Coming Next, Expert predictions for 2008‟, PC Live, January, 7.

Raftery, T (2008) „What‟s Coming Next, Expert predictions for 2008‟, PC Live, January, 7.

Newspaper Articles

Collins, J. (2007a) „Broadband market heating up‟, Business This Week, The Irish Times, 19 November, 18.

Collins, J. (2007b) „ESB Telecom boosts market‟, Business This Week, The Irish Times, 12 October, 7.

Collins, J. (2007c) „BT plans wi-fi service for Ireland‟, Business This Week, The Irish Times, 5 October, 7.

Dempsey, M. (2007) „Eircom‟, Irish Farmer’s Journal, 18 August, 10-11.

Hill, A. (2007) „A broadband duel that both TalkTalk and BT can win‟ Financial Times, 9 November, 20.

xxviii

Reference material Irish Independent (2007) „Brussels criticises Irish telecoms shambles‟, 30 March.

Kennedy, J. (2008) „USB broadband modem‟, Irish Independent, 7 February.

Parker, A. (2007) „Ofcom eyes new rights for broadband consumers‟, The Financial Times, 20 December, 23.

Parker, A. (2007) „UK: BT raises pay-out 6% but results disappoint‟, The Financial Times, 9 November, 23.

Pfanner, E (2007) „EU takes on German telecom law favouring Deutsche Telekom‟, International Herald Tribune, 26 February.

Ross, S. (2008) „Online buying habits reveal a „digital divide‟‟, Sunday Independent, 20 January, Section 5, p 1.

Stanage, N. (2007) Sunday Business Post, 4 November.

Weckler, A. (2007) „Eircom to expand broadband speeds four-fold‟, Sunday Business Post, 4 November, 21.

Weckler, A. (2007) „Ryan Unbundled‟, Sunday Business Post, 4 November, 12-15.

Radio / Television – Interview or Contribution

Cooper, M. and Ross, S. (2008) Interview on: The Last Word [radio], Today FM, 29 January, 17.50 hrs.

Dobson, B., Whelan, S., Reding, V. and Dunne, J. (2007) Contribution on: Six One News [television], RTÉ One, 29 March, 18.00 hrs.

xxix

Reference material Trade or company publications

Commission for Communications Regulation (2007b) ComReg latest Quarterly Report shows Broadband take-up continues to grow strongly.

Connected Nation, Inc. (2008) The Economic Impact of Stimulating Broadband Nationally.

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2006) Broadband Demand, A Review of Demand in the Irish Broadband Market.

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2006) Broadband Demand Report.

Economic and Social Research Institute (2003) The Mid-Term Evaluation of the National Development Plan 2000 to 2006.

Economic and Social Research Institute (2006) Ex-Ante Evaluation of the Investment Priorities for the National Development Plan 2007-2013.

Fine Gael (2008) Creating a Fibre Nation.

Information Society of Ireland (2003) Ireland’s Broadband Future.

Information Society Statistics (2005) Information Society and Telecommunications – 2005, Central Statistics Office, 0-7557-7135-4.

Information Society Statistics (2006) Information Society and Telecommunications – 2006, Central Statistics Office, 0-7557-7163X. Irish Government (2006) National Development Plan 2007-2013, Transforming Ireland Government Publications, The Stationary

xxx

Reference material Office.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (2004) Technical assistance in bridging the “digital divide”: A Cost benefit Analysis for Broadband connectivity in Europe.

Swedish Government (2006) Broadband for Growth, Innovation and Competitiveness, Official Government Reports (SOU) 2005:97.

The Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2007) Review of progress on broadband rollout Eleventh Report.

Web addresses

ADSL (2007), “AirComm to provide Rural Broadband Scheme” (http://www.adslnow.ie/news.php) (Accessed 30 January, 2008) Analysys (2007), “Has wireless broadband become mainstream?” (http://www.analysys.com/default_acl.asp?mode=article&iLeftArticl e=7) (Accessed 11 January 2008).

Border, Midlands, and Western Regional Assembly, (2003), “BMW Assembly announces Wireless Internet Service to rural communities”, (http://www.bmwassembly.ie/news/press/BMW%20Assembly%20an nounces%20Wireless%20Internet%20Service%20to%20rural%20co mmunities.doc) (Accessed 5 February 2008).

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2004), “Group Broadband Scheme”

xxxi

Reference material (http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Communications/Communications+Devel opment/Group+Broadband+Scheme/Group+Broadband+Scheme.htm ) (Accessed 14 January 2008).

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2007a), “Dempsey Unveils New National Broadband Scheme” (http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Press+Releases/Dempsey+Unveils+New+ National+Broadband+Scheme.htm) (Accessed 15 January 2008).

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2007b), “The Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act” (http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Comunications/Regulation+and+Postal+Di vision/Act+2007.htm) (Accessed 17 January 2008).

Digiweb (2008), “Slow browsing or high Internet bills?” (www.digiweb.ie/athome_broadband_satellite_index.asp?i=3&i2=6& i6=31) (Accessed 21 February 2008).

European Union (2006), “Internet usage in the EU25”, (http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=STAT/06/ 146&format=HTML&ag) (Accessed 22 November 2007).

FON (2008), “What‟s FON”, (http://www.fon.com/en/) (Accessed 21 January 2008).

Forfas (1998) “Broadband Telecommunications Investment in Ireland” (http://www.forfas.ie) (Accessed 14 January 2008). getbroadband.ie (2000), “Homepage” (www.getBroadband.ie) (Accessed 14 January 2008). getbroadband.ie (2008), “Free Internet Access!” (http://www.getBroadband.ie/Broadband_news.php?news =43)

xxxii

Reference material (Accessed 14 March 2008).

Ginty, C., ElectricNews.Net Ltd (2007), “National Broadband Scheme gets go-ahead” (http://www.enn.ie/article/10123493.html) (Accessed 14 January 2008).

Home Computing Initiative (2006), “Get a Mouse in your House” (http://www.hciireland.ie/tabid/4664/ctl/ArticleView/mid/7081/article Id/39/GET-A-MOUSE-IN-YOUR-HOUSE--TAOISEACH.aspx) (Accessed 11 January 2008).

Irish Business and Employers Confederation (2007), “€3.2 billion investment by telcos in next five years”, (www.ibec.ie/ibec/press/presspublications.doclib3.nsf/wvPCICCC/D 2DA5869DBC524F9802573760036BCD4?OpenDocument) (Accessed 2 January 2008).

Irish Exporters Association (2005), “Slow roll-out of Broadband will put Irish Exporters at a serious disadvantage” (http://www.irishexporters.ie/PR20July2005.shtml) (Accessed 29 January 2007).

Kelly, M., ElectricNews.Net Ltd (2006), “The future of broadband in Ireland” (http://www.enn.ie/article/9674046.html) (Accessed 4 January 2008).

McDonald, S., ElectricNews.Net Ltd (2003), “Irish government gets behind broadband” (http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=9346043) (Accessed 14 January 2008).

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr. Noel Treacy (2000), “Parliamentary Debates”

xxxiii

Reference material (http://www.irlgov.ie/debates-00/23may/sect5.htm) (Accessed 21 March 2008).

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (2000), “Address by Mr. Noel Treacy at the launch of e-Business Masterclasses” (http://www.entemp.ie/press/2000/290900.htm) (Accessed 21 February 2008).

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (2006), “OECD Broadband Portal”, (http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,3343,en_2649_201185_386901 02_1_1_1_1,00.html) (Accessed 15 October 2007).

Radio Telefís Éireann (2007), “EC report slams broadband performance”, (http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0329/broadband_av.html) (Accessed 3 January 2008).

Radio Telefís Éireann (2008), “Nine Questions for…. Gina Quin”, (http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0121/quing.html) (Accessed 3 February 2008).

Ross, S. (2008), “Country held back by Government‟s Broadband Blindspot”, (http://www.shane-ross.ie/archives/286/Country-heldback-by-governments-broadband-blindspot) (Accessed 3 February 2008).

Smart Computing Enclyclopedia (2008), “tier 1, tier 2, tier 3 ISP (Internet Service Provider)”, (http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/dictionary/detail.asp?guid =&searchtype=&DicID=19260&RefType=Encyclopedia) (Accessed 1 March 2008).

xxxiv

Reference material Taylor, C., ElectricNews.Net Ltd (2007), “State may step in to mediate telco squabbles” (http://www.enn.ie/article/10028198.html) (Accessed 14 January 2008).

The Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2007), “Review of progress on rollout of broadband”, (http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewpda.asp?DocID=7595&&CatID=36&S tartDate=01%20January%202007&OrderAscending=0) (Accessed 1 February 2008).

UPC/Chorus ntl (2008) “Broadband from Chorus & ntl”, (http://www.upc.ie/Internet/) (Accessed 22 January, 2007).

WiMAX (2008), “WiMAX in 50 pages” (http://www.wimax.com) (Accessed 6 January 2008).

xxxv

Reference material

7.5 Bibliography

Book

Kurose, J. F. and Ross, K. W. (2005), Computer Networking - A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet (3rd Edition ), Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-321-26976-4

Conferences

Norton, Professor J. (2003) “Get Connected” Commission for Communications Regulation National Conference, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, Ireland.

Telecommunications and Internet Federation, (2007) “Beyond Broadband” TIF Annual Conference, Mansion House, Dublin, Ireland. The debate panellists are: Neil Parkinson, CEO, Irish Broadband; Conal Henry, CEO, e-net; Colm Piercy, CEO, Digiweb; Niall Hogan, General Manager, ESB Telecoms; Iain MacDonald, CEO, Perlico; Gary Keogh, MD, COLT Telecom Ireland Ltd; Derek Daly, MD, InterFusion Networks; Vern Kennedy, CEO, Magnet Networks; Rex Comb, CEO, Eircom; Robert Finnegan, CEO, 3 Ireland; Chris Clark, CEO, BT Ireland; Robert Dunn, CEO, UPC Ireland; John Riordan, CEO, Smart Telecom; Charles Butterworth, CEO, Vodafone; Mike Short, VP R&D, Telefonica O2 Europe.

xxxvi

Reference material Journal articles

Cheng, J. and Yu, H. and Sincoskie, W. (2005) “Meeting the Broadband access infrastructure demands: The promise of Gigabit Ethernet” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 72(1) 1-10.

Höffler, F, (2007) “Cost and benefits from infrastructure competition.

Estimating welfare effects from Broadband access competition”, Telecommunications Policy, 31(6-7), 401-418.

Hubregtse, S. (2005) “The digital divide within the European Union”, New Library World, 106(3/4), 164–172.

Picot, A and Wernick, C. (2007) “The role of government in Broadband access”, Telecommunications Policy.

Polykalas, S. and Vlachos K. (2006) “Broadband penetration and Broadband competition: evidence and analysis in the EU market”, info, 8(6), 15– 30.

Legislation – Bill

Ross, S. (2007) Broadband Bill.

Magazines

Farinone, C. (2007) „European Parliament back regional Broadband‟, The Brussels Magazine, September, Volume 24, No. 263.

xxxvii

Reference material French, A, (2008) „What‟s Coming Next, Expert predictions for 2008‟, PC Live, January, 7.

Maguire, A (2008) „What‟s Coming Next, Expert predictions for 2008‟, PC Live, January, 7.

Mulley, D. (2008) „What‟s Coming Next, Expert predictions for 2008‟, PC Live, January, 7.

Raftery, T (2008) „What‟s Coming Next, Expert predictions for 2008‟, PC Live, January, 7.

The Economist. (2008) „Broadband: Open up those highways‟, 19 January, 55.

Woollacott, P. (2007) „Cybercrime comes of age‟, IT Now, March, 6-7.

Newspaper Articles

Campbell, I. (2007) „Rural Broadband‟, Sunday Business Post, 4 November, 30-31.

Collins, J. (2007) „Enet defends its networks operations‟, Business This Week, The Irish Times, 12 October, 7.

Collins, J. (2007) „Mobile firms „failing to innovate‟‟, Business This Week, The Irish Times, 19 November, 18.

Collins, J. (2007a) „Broadband market heating up‟, Business This Week, The Irish Times, 19 November, 18.

Collins, J. (2007b) „ESB Telecom boosts market‟, Business This Week, The Irish Times, 12 October, 7.

xxxviii

Reference material Collins, J. (2007c) „BT plans wi-fi service for Ireland‟, Business This Week, The Irish Times, 5 October, 7.

Dempsey, M. (2007) „Eircom‟, Irish Farmer’s Journal, 18 August, 10-11.

Hill, A. (2007) „A broadband duel that both TalkTalk and BT can win‟ Financial Times, 9 November, 20.

Irish Independent (2007) „Brussels criticises Irish telecoms shambles‟, 30 March.

Kennedy, E. (2007) „Better IT access to public services sought‟, The Sunday Business Post, 30 September, m8.

Kennedy, J. (2008) „USB broadband modem‟, Irish Independent, 7 February.

Maguire, A. (2007) „Changing face of TV battle‟, The Sunday Business Post, 2 December, 27.

Parker, A. (2007) „Ofcom eyes new rights for broadband consumers‟, The Financial Times, 20 December, 23.

Parker, A. (2007) „UK: BT raises pay-out 6% but results disappoint‟, The Financial Times, 9 November, 23.

Pfanner, E (2007) „EU takes on German telecom law favouring Deutsche Telekom‟, International Herald Tribune, 26 February.

Ross, S. (2008) „Online buying habits reveal a „digital divide‟‟, Sunday Independent, 20 January, Section 5, p 1.

Stanage, N. (2007) Sunday Business Post, 4 November.

Weckler, A. (2007) „Eircom to expand broadband speeds four-fold‟, Sunday Business Post, 4 November, 21.

Weckler, A. (2007) „Ryan Unbundled‟, Sunday Business Post, 4 November, 12-15.

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Reference material

Radio / Television â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Interview or Contribution

Cooper, M. and Ross, S. (2008) Interview on: The Last Word [radio], Today FM, 29 January, 17.50 hrs.

Dobson, B., Whelan, S., Reding, V. and Dunne, J. (2007) Contribution on: Six One News [television], RTĂ&#x2030; One, 29 March, 18.00 hrs.

Trade or company publications

Commission for Communications Regulation (2007a) The Internet and Broadband Experience for Residential Users, A Communications Survey Report based on the Trends Survey Series, Document No. 07/12.

Commission for Communications Regulation (2007b) ComReg latest Quarterly Report shows Broadband take-up continues to grow strongly.

Connected Nation, Inc. (2008) The Economic Impact of Stimulating Broadband Nationally.

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2006) Broadband Demand, A Review of Demand in the Irish Broadband Market.

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2006) Broadband Demand Report.

xl

Reference material Economic and Social Research Institute (2003) The Mid-Term Evaluation of the National Development Plan 2000 to 2006.

Economic and Social Research Institute (2006) Ex-Ante Evaluation of the Investment Priorities for the National Development Plan 2007-2013.

Fine Gael (2008) Creating a Fibre Nation.

Information Society of Ireland (2003) Ireland’s Broadband Future.

Information Society Statistics (2005) Information Society and Telecommunications – 2005, Central Statistics Office, 0-7557-7135-4.

Information Society Statistics (2006) Information Society and Telecommunications – 2006, Central Statistics Office, 0-7557-7163X. Irish Government (2006) National Development Plan 2007-2013, Transforming Ireland, Government Publications, The Stationary Office.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (2004) Technical assistance in bridging the “digital divide”: A Cost benefit Analysis for Broadband connectivity in Europe.

Swedish Government (2006) Broadband for Growth, Innovation and Competitiveness, Official Government Reports (SOU) 2005:97.

The Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2007) Review of progress on broadband rollout Eleventh Report.

xli

Reference material Web addresses ADSL (2007), “AirComm to provide Rural Broadband Scheme” (http://www.adslnow.ie/news.php) (Accessed 30 January, 2008) Analysys (2007), “Has wireless broadband become mainstream?” (http://www.analysys.com/default_acl.asp?mode=article&iLeftArticl e=7) (Accessed 11 January 2008).

Border, Midlands, and Western Regional Assembly, (2003), “BMW Assembly announces Wireless Internet Service to rural communities”, (http://www.bmwassembly.ie/news/press/BMW%20Assembly%20an nounces%20Wireless%20Internet%20Service%20to%20rural%20co mmunities.doc) (Accessed 5 February 2008).

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2004), “Group Broadband Scheme” (http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Communications/Communications+Devel opment/Group+Broadband+Scheme/Group+Broadband+Scheme.htm ) (Accessed 14 January 2008).

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2007a), “Dempsey Unveils New National Broadband Scheme” (http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Press+Releases/Dempsey+Unveils+New+ National+Broadband+Scheme.htm) (Accessed 15 January 2008).

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2007b), “The Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act” (http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Comunications/Regulation+and+Postal+Di vision/Act+2007.htm) (Accessed 17 January 2008).

xlii

Reference material Digiweb (2008), “Slow browsing or high Internet bills?” (www.digiweb.ie/athome_broadband_satellite_index.asp?i=3&i2=6& i6=31) (Accessed 21 February 2008).

European Union (2006), “Internet usage in the EU25”, (http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=STAT/06/ 146&format=HTML&ag) (Accessed 22 November 2007).

FON (2008), “What‟s FON”, (http://www.fon.com/en/) (Accessed 21 January 2008).

Forfas (1998) “Broadband Telecommunications Investment in Ireland” (http://www.forfas.ie) (Accessed 14 January 2008). getbroadband.ie (2000), “Homepage” (www.getBroadband.ie) (Accessed 14 January 2008). getbroadband.ie (2008), “Free Internet Access!” (http://www.getBroadband.ie/Broadband_news.php?news =43) (Accessed 14 March 2008).

Ginty, C., ElectricNews.Net Ltd (2007), “National Broadband Scheme gets go-ahead” (http://www.enn.ie/article/10123493.html) (Accessed 14 January 2008).

Home Computing Initiative (2006), “Get a Mouse in your House” (http://www.hciireland.ie/tabid/4664/ctl/ArticleView/mid/7081/article Id/39/GET-A-MOUSE-IN-YOUR-HOUSE--TAOISEACH.aspx) (Accessed 11 January 2008).

Irish Business and Employers Confederation (2007), “€3.2 billion investment by telcos in next five years”, (www.ibec.ie/ibec/press/presspublications.doclib3.nsf/wvPCICCC/D

xliii

Reference material 2DA5869DBC524F9802573760036BCD4?OpenDocument) (Accessed 2 January 2008).

Irish Exporters Association (2005), “Slow roll-out of Broadband will put Irish Exporters at a serious disadvantage” (http://www.irishexporters.ie/PR20July2005.shtml) (Accessed 29 January 2007).

Kelly, M., ElectricNews.Net Ltd (2006), “The future of broadband in Ireland” (http://www.enn.ie/article/9674046.html) (Accessed 4 January 2008).

McDonald, S., ElectricNews.Net Ltd (2003), “Irish government gets behind broadband” (http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=9346043) (Accessed 14 January 2008).

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr. Noel Treacy (2000), “Parliamentary Debates” (http://www.irlgov.ie/debates-00/23may/sect5.htm) (Accessed 21 March 2008).

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (2000), “Address by Mr. Noel Treacy at the launch of e-Business Masterclasses” (http://www.entemp.ie/press/2000/290900.htm) (Accessed 21 February 2008).

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (2006), “OECD Broadband Portal”, (http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,3343,en_2649_201185_386901 02_1_1_1_1,00.html) (Accessed 15 October 2007).

Radio Telefís Éireann (2007), “EC report slams broadband performance”,

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Reference material (http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0329/broadband_av.html) (Accessed 3 January 2008).

Radio Telefís Éireann (2008), “Nine Questions for…. Gina Quin”, (http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0121/quing.html) (Accessed 3 February 2008).

Ross, S. (2008), “Country held back by Government‟s Broadband Blindspot”, (http://www.shane-ross.ie/archives/286/Country-heldback-by-governments-broadband-blindspot) (Accessed 3 February 2008).

Smart Computing Enclyclopedia (2008), “tier 1, tier 2, tier 3 ISP (Internet Service Provider)”, (http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/dictionary/detail.asp?guid =&searchtype=&DicID=19260&RefType=Encyclopedia) (Accessed 1 March 2008).

Taylor, C., ElectricNews.Net Ltd (2007), “State may step in to mediate telco squabbles” (http://www.enn.ie/article/10028198.html) (Accessed 14 January 2008).

The Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2007), “Review of progress on rollout of broadband”, (http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewpda.asp?DocID=7595&&CatID=36&S tartDate=01%20January%202007&OrderAscending=0) (Accessed 1 February 2008).

UPC/Chorus ntl (2008) “Broadband from Chorus & ntl”, (http://www.upc.ie/Internet/) (Accessed 22 January, 2007).

WiMAX (2008), “WiMAX in 50 pages” (http://www.wimax.com) (Accessed 6 January 2008). xlv

Index

8 Index

3

E

3G cellular technology.. 64, 65, 71, 72, 77, 89, 90, 91, 94

EC ii Economy.......... 41, 42, 45, 50, 53, 58, 82, 96, 98, 107 Eircom .... 6, 25, 26, 30, 37, 40, 41, 43, 46, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 69, 71, 72, 75, 77, 80, 84, 86, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93, 110, 112, 113, 115, xii ESA .......................................................................... ii ESRI ................................................................... 50, ii EU5, 8, 28, 29, 31, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 46, 48, 50, 56, 58, 61, 62, 80, 88, 98, 110, ii, xii Europe . 23, 39, 40, 57, 93, 96, 99, 104, 108, 110, 117 European3, 5, 8, 38, 39, 40, 46, 47, 48, 56, 68, 88, 93, 96, 101, 106, 112, 114, ii

A Access4, 15, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 30, 34, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 46, 49, 50, 52, 54, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 71, 73, 75, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 85, 88, 92, 104, 108, 111, 113, 119, ii, iv, vi, viii, ix, x, xii, xiii ADSL ................................... 101, ii, iv, vi, vii, xi, xiii ADSL2................................................................. ii, iv American ................................................................ 68

F Fibre optic cable . 1, 25, 26, 29, 44, 46, 51, 64, 65, 68, 69, 71, 72, 74, 76, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93, 94, ii, vii, viii, x, xi, xii Fine Gael ........... 47, 65, 68, 70, 74, 76, 86, 87, 88, 89 FTTB ................................................... 26, 71, 86, 101 FTTC .............................................................71, 86, ii FTTH .................................................................. 86, ii FTTK .................................................................. 86, ii

B Backhaul ...................................... 47, 68, 69, 74, 76, v Bandwidth .. 15, 21, 25, 27, 36, 65, 67, 69, 75, 76, 83, 85, ii, iv, v, xi Benefits ... 2, 8, 26, 39, 40, 50, 85, 96, 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 117 BFWA ..................... 64, 71, 72, 74, 90, 91, 94, 101, ii BMW ................................... 17, 18, 47, 48, 49, 109, ii Broadband 16, 19, 24, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 41, 42, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 55, 59, 61, 62, 63, 68, 70, 71, 74, 75, 89, 90, 96, 103, 105, 113, 119, 121, 125, ii, iv, v, vi, vii, ix, x, xi Broadband penetration ................... 28, 35, 41, 89, 104 BT 30, 44, 53, 60, 69, 71, 81, 89, 93, ii BTEI ................................................................... 12, ii

G GBS ................................................... 48, 49, 50, 51, ii Government .. 1, 2, 5, 6, 12, 26, 37, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 55, 59, 65, 72, 77, 89, 90, 92, 104, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, 118, xi

C

H

Cable operators ..................................................61, 63 ComReg ........... 5, 40, 56, 57, 58, 61, 63, 69, 78, 97, ii Connect Nation ..................................................... 105 Connectivity 16, 17, 18, 19, 28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 41, 46, 48, 65, 66, 67, 68, 93, 96, 97, 101, 108, 109, 110, 111, 115 Cost. 4, 6, 7, 41, 45, 52, 62, 64, 65, 68, 74, 79, 80, 82, 84, 86, 87, 90, 93, 94, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 104, 107, 111, 112, 114, 117 CSO ................. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, ii

Home Computing Initiative ...........................53, 54, ii Hotspots......................... 26, 64, 71, 72, 80, 92, 94, 95 Hybrid Fibre Coaxial ....................... 64, 65, 83, 101, ii

I IBEC.................................................... 37, 101, 104, ii ICT .................................................... 12, 17, 53, 63, ii Infrastructure ..................................................... 66, 77 Internet ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 46, 47, 48, 49, 65, 66, 67, 69, 72, 73, 74, 78, 79, 80, 81, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98, 102, 108, 109, 110, 114, 115, 119, 121, 123, 125, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix, x, xi, xii, xiii Internet access .... 27, 28, 29, 31, 40, 49, 80, 81, xi, xii

D DCMNR ............................................................... 8, ii DSL ......... 51, 71, 77, 79, 83, 84, 88, 91, 92, 94, ii, vii

xlvi

Index Ireland. 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 49, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 64, 65, 68, 69, 71, 73, 76, 78, 80, 81, 84, 89, 92, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 113, 116, 117, 121, 123, 125, iv, x ISPs.................................. 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, ii, viii, x

S Satellite ......... 44, 61, 64, 71, 72, 73, 90, 94, vi, viii, ix Service Providers.. 6, 7, 26, 37, 38, 39, 46, 49, 51, 53, 58, 62, 63, 66, 73, 75, 80, 92, 96, 98, 100, 108, 109, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, ii, vi, xi Sound...........................................................34, 55, vii State 12, 17, 18, 26, 45, 48, 50, 68, 69, 75, 88, 94, 119 Strategic plan ........................... 7, 38, 47, 62, 113, 116 Streaming ......................................................... 25, xii

L LAN ..................................................................... ii, ix LLU .............................................................. 41, 88, ii

T Technology . 2, 6, 7, 30, 42, 45, 46, 63, 75, 76, 78, 79, 89, 90, 92, 94, 95, 100, 111, 113, 115, 116, iv, vii, viii, xi, xiii Telecommunications..... 45, 46, 47, 56, 57, 59, 66, 68, 69, 75, 100, 112, 117, v, vi, xii, xiii Text ......................................................... 3, 34, 93, vii Tier-1 ........................................................... 43, 67, 68 Tier-2 ..................................................... 47, 66, 68, 89 Tier-3 ............................................... 66, 71, 72, 89, 94 TIF ............................................................. 37, 101, iii

M MANs .......... 26, 40, 45, 46, 47, 50, 51, 55, 69, 70, 89

N NBS ................................................................ 52, ii, x NDP ....................................... 44, 45, 47, 50, 51, 53, ii NGA ................................................................... 65, ii NGN ......................................................... 26, 65, ii, x

V O

Video 14, 15, 25, 30, 31, 60, 66, 73, 102, 110, viii, xi, xii, xiii VOD ............................................................ 25, iii, xii VOIP ........................................................... 25, 73, iii

OECD ........................................................ 29, 32, 110

P

W

PricewaterhouseCoopers..... 27, 32, 65, 72, 73, 74, 76, 84, 89, 90, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 107, 110, 111, 117 Public finance ......................................................6, 74 Public sector ............................................ 5, 7, 81, 106

Wi-Fi ..... 64, 65, 71, 72, 79, 80, 81, 82, 89, 92, 94, 95 WiMAX ..................................................... 75, 76, xiii Wireless 19, 26, 34, 44, 48, 49, 61, 64, 71, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 93, 113, ii, iv, vi, viii, xii, xiii WLAN ..................................................................... iii

xlvii

Disclaimer

9 Disclaimer

Department of Information Technology Limerick Institute of Technology

Name: James J. Keane Student Id: K00002935 Course/Year: BBus (Honours) in Business Computing 2008 Dissertation Title: Irish Broadband: Planning, Infrastructure and Benefits

I wish to confirm that this dissertation is my own unaided effort and that I have acknowledged all sources of information and ideas, used in this dissertation.

Signed: ________________________________________ Date:

______________________

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