Kingdom may end up at bottom of national broadband table

KERRY may be in the No 1 position in relation to Gaelic football but it could end up at the bottom of the national broadband league.

High-speed internet access is targeted to be available in all rural areas countrywide by September 2010, but not in the Kingdom.

Only 5,400 homes of the 48,000 in Kerry have broadband, according to the latest Central Statistics Office report.

Continuing objections to the erection of telecommunications masts around the county, with the latest in the Kilcummin area, near Killarney, are delaying the broadband roll-out, Kerry County Council warned yesterday.

While telecommunications companies invariably get planning permission for masts, after appeals to An Bord Pleanala there are inevitable delays because of the time-consuming planning process.

“These masts are needed to ensure we get broadband into rural areas, but there’s also the wider issue of broadband being necessary to attract further business and industrial investment to Kerry,” said the council’s communications executive, Padraig Corkery.

“This information technology (IT) is an essential means of addressing Kerry’s peripherality.

“We have seen leading examples of how important IT is to Kerry through the success of the Kerry Group and Fexco, which both have their headquarters in the county, and Kerry Technology Park, in Tralee,” he added.

County manager Tom Curran has already warned that a controversial rule which bans the building of masts within 1km of houses, schools and other residential buildings is impeding development in Kerry.

Local authorities in Cork, Clare and Limerick do not have such a rule.

Mr Curran said Kerry could be one of the last counties to get broadband in rural areas, putting residences and businesses at a disadvantage.

Tralee, Killarney and Listowel have broadband through Metropolitan Area Networks but the cost of laying fibre-optic lines elsewhere in the county is prohibitive, said IT technical expert, Michael Harkin.

He said the alternative was wireless, but that would call for the erection of further telecommunications masts.

Mr Harkin said 29 masts were needed to service the entire county.

Residents of Kilcummin are the latest to object to a planning application by H3G for a mast which would be the third mast in a 2km sq area.