Broadband expansion - No village should be left behind

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte announced yesterday that the Government is to begin mapping out the broadband availability throughout the country in line with the national broadband plan to provide high-speed service to all parts of the country through a combination of public and private investment.

The mapping process is designed to identify those areas where government intervention will be needed to ensure the introduction of the necessary high-speed broadband services required by the plan, which was launched by Mr Rabbitte last August.

“We will work our way through a map of Ireland, community by community, to see which streets and roads, which towns and villages, will be offered fast broadband by the commercial operations, and, as a result, to spot the gaps that we need to fill with state-supported investment,” Mr Rabbitte said yesterday.

This is something that should have been done long ago, because broadband has become an indispensable tool of communication. It is crucial not just for business but for social and educational purposes.

Identifying the areas of need will require co-operation from broadband providers. The Department of Comm-unications is contacting the various telecom companies about their existing services and their plans to extend their network infrastructure within the next three years.

The department has requested they provide the necessary data within eight weeks. Participation will be voluntary, but Mr Rabbitte is confident the providers will co-operate. He then plans to publish the maps for public consultation.

The delivery of broadband services to isolated, or even urban areas not already covered, cannot be left to commercial companies if extending the services to those areas is not considered commercially viable. In such matters the Government has distinct responsibilities to help promote proper development for the benefit of all. If expansion and development were left to the dictation of commerce alone, isolated and deprived areas would possibility remain remote and disadvantaged forever.

Rural electrification would probably never have developed if the ESB had been confined to short-term, commercially viable projects. Broadband is every bit as important in the 21st century as electricity was to remote areas in the 20th century.

Indeed, broadband provides viable means of overcoming many of the disadvantages of remoteness, and it is undoubtedly vital to the economic development of such areas. Remote areas have long been blighted by migration and even emigration. Broadband may not reverse the trend completely, but it can ensure that those people who desire to move are better prepared to deal with the challenges of the 21st century.