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Kathryn Raleigh, director of the ISA, told ElectricNews.Net that it was time for the Irish government to spend money upgrading the telecommunications network outside of Dublin in the same manner it has upgraded the nation's roads. "Companies based on the Western seaboard deserve to have the same telecoms infrastructure as businesses in the capital," commented Raleigh.
She was speaking in the wake of a survey by IBEC's Telecommunications User Group (TUG) that found that 30 percent of Irish businesses believe the country's telecoms infrastructure is inadequate. A survey by the ISA earlier this year revealed that 44 percent of software companies are dissatisfied with the availability of infrastructure in the telecoms arena and this figure rises to over 60 percent among such businesses based outside the capital.
"The results of the TUG survey mirror the complaints that we are receiving from our members," said Raleigh. "If we are serious about becoming the e-commerce hub of Europe then we need to improve our telecoms infrastructure and this can only be done with the assistance of the government." According to the TUG survey, only 24 percent of businesses are presently engaged in e-commerce activities.
The survey also found that there is high demand for fixed-line broadband Internet access services, with 75 percent of companies surveyed saying they would use ADSL technology if available and close to 60 percent saying they would use cable modems.
However, due to commercial and regulatory delays neither of these technologies are currently available here. Raleigh commented that these hold-ups were damaging Ireland's ability to attract inward investment. "Companies either setting-up here or thinking about locating in the Republic need to know when these services will be available and what they will cost before they can make business decisions. At the moment, those issues are up in the air," she remarked.
The TUG survey also showed that while the mobile market grew from 2.62 million connections in the second quarter of 2001 from 1.84 million connections in the same period last year, two-thirds of companies in urban areas said they experienced coverage problems on a daily basis. This number increased to three out of four when the businesses were based outside urban areas.
More than 30 percent of all respondents said they were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with loss of service while making calls and half said they were dissatisfied with the cost of mobile calls.
The study also predicted that the value of telecommunications to the economy will increase up from IEP2.5 billion to IEP4.3 billion by 2005.
The ISA can be found at http://www.software.ie and the IBEC is at http://www.ibec.ie.
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