Writing for life

“Working it” column published in the Career Moves section of The Evening Echo on 18/02/2008

After years of waiting I finally got hooked up to a broadband internet connection just before Christmas. I was over the moon. No more clunky dialup, no more dropped lines, no more waiting around for sites to load, no more being tethered to the phone line when I wanted to check my e-mail.

I was delighted with my 1Mb/sec fixed wireless connection – at last I could experience what this much touted “Web 2,0” had to offer. Then my wife’s sister and her family, who live in France, came to visit for New Year. I was waxing lyrical about the joys of my new broadband connection, when her partner took the wind from my sails. He told me that in France they enjoyed a 24Mbit/sec unlimited download connection for just €15 per month. My contract, for something 1/24^th of the speed with a download cap of 15GB, costs me more than twice that at €37.50… and it’s the only game in town.

Suddenly my enthusiasm began to wane.

When I couldn’t get broadband I was complaining about lack of availability. Now I have it I’m relieved… but not satisfied. Why should we have to endure sub-standard connectivity compared to our European neighbours, especially when the Irish government is touting this country as a centre of technology excellence, and harbours ambitions to become a leading light in Europe’s emerging “knowledge economy”?

Most entry level broadband packages in Ireland still wallow at 1Mb/Sec, for which operators are charging more than our nearest neighbours in the UK (even those on this very same island) are paying for a connection that’s eight times as fast or more. My mum, who lives in rural North Wales, can get an 8Mbit/sec connection thrown in for free with a flat rate telephone bundle that costs a princely GB£16.99 a month… or about €23. It’s ludicrous!

While penetration and adoption rates are on the increase, and eircom announced hikes in speeds for its ADSL subscribers recently, the sorry truth is that broadband in Ireland still lags way behind the European leaders in terms of speed, and where nowhere near the mark in terms of value. Add that to the fact that, outside our main urban centres, broadband availability remains patchy at best, and it paints a pretty woeful picture.

Sarah Carey, columnist with the Sunday Times, hit the nail on the head recently when she wrote:

“It turns out that ‘broadband’ is a loose term. To one company ‘broadband’ is between one and two megabits on old twisted copper lines. To another, broadband means a minimum of 8mbs on new fibre optic. It’s like the difference between a dirt track and a motorway.”

NB. Sarah’s comments were made in a slightly different context — but the analogy remains an apt one.

But things are changing, says the government. Speeds are on the way up, and the National Broadband Scheme will finally sort out the availability issue. Not so, say vociferous commentators like technology blogger Damien Mulley, who points to numerous flaws in the scheme, and disputes government spin.

If the government is serious about realising its stated aim of becoming a true knowledge based economy, and wants to be recognised as such on the international stage, then it better get serious about broadband. The economy is much like a business in that its most valuable assets are its people… in an increasingly knowledge-centric world, if those people aren’t connected, they can’t contribute.

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