Lack of broadband coverage keeps rural areas in digital darkness

MANY rural areas are being kept in digital darkness by being deprived of access to broadband telecommunications.

More than 25% of the Republic — mostly rural dwellers — is without broadband, while 100% of the North is enabled, a conference on rural development heard yesterday.

“Many areas have little chance of getting broadband and government should step in where there is clear market failure,” said Dr Patricia O’Hara, policy manager with the Western Development Commission.

“Some of our most innovative home-grown enterprises, and many of our most creative people involved in digital media are located in rural Ireland,” Dr O’Hara told the Irish Rural Link annual conference in Tullamore.

“We should cherish those who choose to create jobs and live in rural places in particular as there is a well documented decline in some of the primary industries such as farming and fishing.”

Dr O’Hara, who was a member of the Information Society Commission from 2001-2004, said: “Broadband providers admit that the market will never deliver to rural Ireland.

“Twenty-five% of the population, almost all rural dwellers, has little chance of getting a service because it is not profitable to supply them.

“While a number of schemes for rural areas have been introduced these have had a limited impact.

“Government now needs to commit to 100% coverage, using various technologies — something that has already happened in Northern Ireland.”

Dr O’Hara said areas without broadband “are often in the most attractive and beautiful locations in Ireland and online access is essential for tourism in these areas”.

She said lack of high-speed internet access “makes it virtually impossible to run a knowledge-based business or to telework from rural locations that look highly unlikely to get broadband any time soon”.

“Anyone who has tried to e-mail a large file, download a set of digital photographs or music, or shop online without broadband knows this.

“To position Ireland as a knowledge-based society and capitalise on the growth of home-grown successful ICT businesses, broadband must be seen as a basic utility, just like electricity and water, and not a privilege,.

“As the internet becomes the main means of accessing entertainment and a growing range of services, including education and health, those places where it is not available will be simply bypassed.”