Broadband plan in jeopardy? - Markets fail social good once again

The Catholic Church, it is said in an almost intimidatory way, thinks in centuries. That sweeping perspective is, however, unnecessary in relation to the news that Eir has withdrawn from the National Broadband Plan (NBP). The announcement can’t quite be traced back even two decades.

It has its roots in July 1999 when, in a blaze of marketing and more than a frisson of Government-encouraged public greed dressed as informed investor ambition, Eircom was floated on the Irish, London and New York Stock exchanges.