We lag EU in fast net take-up

BROADBAND take-up levels in Ireland are the second-lowest in the EU, while access costs are among the highest, according to the European Commission.

A report presented at yesterday's meeting of EU communications ministers in Dundalk showed Irish broadband penetration at just 0.9% of the population.

Only Greece has less availability of high-speed internet access, at 0.1%. This compares with an EU average of 6.1% and is far behind leading countries like Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands with approximately 12%.

The commission said the Irish figures "may look surprising in a country where the diffusion of ICT (information and communications technology) has played an important role in the economic development of the last few years." It also noted that broadband access costs here were "relatively high, particularly for high-speed offers."

Commissioner with responsibility for the information society, Erkki Liikanen, said differences in broadband penetration between EU countries were down to historical reasons. Mr Liikanen said it was logical that countries with established digital and cable TV networks had higher penetration rates. Countries with lower penetration were starting to catch up, he added.

But the commission also expected Ireland's broadband take-up to improve dramatically, thanks to the Government's €200 million plan to roll out broadband infrastructure throughout the country. The Government will spend €35 million every year until 2007 to provide open-access broadband infrastructure in every city and town with more than 1,500 people.

Yesterday's informal meeting, held as part of Ireland's EU presidency, also heard that the level of business conducted online would explode over the next two years. A group of 20 chief executives from leading European telecom and internet companies told ministers that online business within the EU would increase over the next two years to almost 30 times' today's levels.

The report claimed the value of online business would grow from €77bn this year to over €2 trillion (€2,000bn) by the end of 2006.

This would account for more than 20% of all EU industrial trade.

But broadband roll-out would be critical in achieving this.