Broadband take-up rate collapses

THE rate of broadband take-up in Ireland has collapsed, according to figures published yesterday by Eircom.

The fixed-line phone operator said only 26,000 broadband connections had been registered so far this year. This works out at around 1,250 per week but is less than half the sign-up rate achieved late last year, when 3,000 customers were signing up every week.

Around 3,000 connections are needed weekly to meet the target of 500,000 high-speed internet subscribers by the end of 2007. But Eircom chief executive Philip Nolan said the company was still on track to meet the target.