Public can vote on location of broadband installations

A NEW advertisement campaign to encourage more people to use a novel “vote for broadband” service is to be launched by the Department of Communications.

The department’s website - www.broadband.gov.ie - invites the public to influence the location of new broadband installations by registering their vote to have the service extended to their area.

But, although the facility has been available since last February, only 2,339 votes were received during the first three months and the Department concedes this is probably because most people do not know it exists.

A spokesperson for the department said all the data gathered from the votes was passed onto broadband service providers.

“We want to give the website another push over the next week or two so as many people as possible know about it,” he said.

The department is concerned by widespread complaints about the growing, but still sparse, availability of broadband. Broadband cables allow internet access at speeds many times faster and with greater reliability than traditional methods, and businesses have complained they can not function efficiently without it.

The spokesman insisted the underlying infra-structure had been installed almost countrywide so the service should be widely available through connections from commercial companies like Eircom.

“The department can’t bring the service to everybody’s door - the service providers have the tools to do that,” he said.

Communications Minister Dermot Ahern said e65 million had been spent over the past 10 years on laying out high speed internet cable.

The minister said he intervened in the market because of the need to avoid what he termed as a “digital divide” - a situation where some parts of the country could get broadband and others could not.

Mr Ahern said the “Vote for Broadband” website was designed so people could see where they could get broadband in their area.

When he became Communications Minister broadband cost €100 a month and there were only 3,000 people using it.

“Today there are 80,000 on broadband and we are now at the EU average for price - about €30 a month for the basic service,” Mr Ahern pointed out.

Currently, the rate of broadband penetration was around 3% - the EU average is about 5%.