News

Minister Rabbitte’s Broadband Targets First of all we in IrelandOffline welcome the broad intent of the Cabinet which is to implement the EU Digital Agenda, requiring 30 mbits minimum speeds for all by 2016. We are in full agreement with the sentiments expressed in the document, broadband is indeed the Rural Electrification project of the 21st century and needs to be treated with the same commitment as that scheme was. The World Bank and the OECD agree on this point. However, as has always been the case with the Department of Communications, the first procurement by Minister Rabbitte’s department will...

Ireland’s position in the broadband stakes deteriorates yet again.Ireland is now at its lowest ever position in the Global Table for Download Speeds and also for Upload Speeds. Ireland dropped five places to 56th position in the World for download speeds. Bandwidth in Ireland, the self proclaimed “Internet Capital of Europe”, costs 188% of the average EU cost and 238% of the Median EU Cost. These figures were 184% and 211% in Q1 2012. Bandwidth costs are rising relative to our European peers with a 10% cost hike relative to the  Median EU Cost in this quarter alone. Ireland relies...

IrelandOffline Quarterly Report Q2 2012 This is the latest IrelandOffline Quarterly report, based as always on Ookla Netindex Data. The situation Internationally Ireland dropped 5 places to 56th place in the World for Download Speeds during Q1 2012, our lowest ever position since the IrelandOffline Quarterly Report was launched two years ago. . We passed Vietnam again in this quarter for download speeds (as we did in the last quarter when we were briefly higher than Vietnam) but this time we passed them on the way down. While we just avoided being passed by nearby Laos for Upload speeds in...

Thousands of rural dwellers may lose coverage in the next licensing round from Comreg. Comreg propose that only 70% of the population of the country needs to be covered,this is approximately 10% of the landmass, which equates to mostly the east coast and a few hot spots around major cities/towns. Inevitably this will lead to a decline in current coverage levels as telecommunications providers struggle with the recession and the inevitable rolling back of their networks as there is no longer a regulatory necessity to invest or maintain the networks in more rural areas. This is a decision driven by...

Comreg Will Cost The Exchequer €300m in 2012 …..By Design. The flawed 4G spectrum auction process designed by Comreg will cost the taxpayer dearly. IrelandOffline now estimates that the auction will fall short of its optimal potential by as much as €300m when it is conducted this summer. Countries that have large dispersed rural populations do NOT benefit from having a multiplicity of physical networks. Only urban areas benefit from multiple networks, in what is known as infrastructure competition, owing to the costs involved. Rural areas are simply being ignored. Comreg have deliberately designed the forthcoming spectrum auction in Ireland...