Less than 5% of Irish people have broadband

LESS than 5% of the population is signed up for high speed broadband internet access, a new report has found.

The Forfás study shows that Ireland has fallen further in a league table of 32 countries measured by broadband penetration.

Ireland ranks 25 out of the 32, down a place on the previous year, despite the number of broadband connections increasing by 170%.

Forfás says less than one person out of 20 in Ireland has a broadband connection compared to one-in-four in South Korea. Other countries ranked ahead of Ireland include Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta.

At the end of last June there were 175,500 broadband subscribers in Ireland, up from 63,000 a year earlier. And while the number is increasing rapidly, Forfás says other countries are still seeing stronger take-up rates.

On price, however, Ireland does better, ranking seventh cheapest of the 32 nations covered in the report.

“Broadband is of key strategic importance to economic growth in all sectors and particularly with respect to improving Ireland’s productivity performance. In light of this, continued poor broadband performance will have serious implications for our future economic success and competitiveness,” Forfás chief executive Martin Cronin said yesterday.