Irish Examiner view: National broadband roll-out plan needs to be expedited

Students, workers forced to run Covid gauntlet to get coverage

Cork County Council yesterday heard a version of the nightmare making so many lives very difficult today. Councillors heard about students using a local enterprise centre because their home broadband signals are utterly inadequate. They heard of people forced to run the Covid gauntlet and return to offices because their home broadband was too weak to support work needs.

The pandemic has made this an everyday story as more and more people dip into a finite well. Some people
are seduced by new providers promising broadband speeds unimaginable in many parts of Ireland but almost passe in the first world. Just as we did with housing, we relied on the market to resolve our telecommunications difficulties — and what a price many of us are paying for that misplaced faith.

The national broadband roll-out plan still mentions years as a delivery timeframe for some areas. That needs to be expedited as no-one working with the appalling broadband signals offered in some areas can afford to wait that long.

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