Ireland is worst in whole of EU for home broadband
WE ALWAYS suspected it, but now it's been confirmed: Irish home broadband usage is now officially the lowest in Europe, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Ireland still lags behind the rest of the 27 countries in the EU, although 43pc of Irish households now have a broadband connection compared with 7pc in 2005.
Last January, the EU 27 average was 48pc -- 5pc more than Ireland in the first quarter of the year.
Par
Ireland's 43pc ranking placed it on a par with Lithuania and 3pc more than Latvia. It was 31pc lower than the Netherlands and Denmark.
Of the original 15 EU countries, Ireland has the fourth worst household broadband usage, according to the CSO's Information Society statistics.
The figures show that 70pc of Irish households that had at least one member aged 16-74 had a home computer. This compared with 55pc in 2005.
Nearly nine of every 10 of the households had their computer connected to the internet, compared with 82pc in 2005.
Three years ago -- when 7pc of Irish homes had broadband -- 39pc of households connected via modem or ISDN. Now, just 19pc are using the slower connection.
But companies have moved ahead fast into the internet age, the figures also show.
Almost 100pc of companies employing more than 10 people now have internet access, and 83pc of those have broadband access -- a major increase on the 61pc who used broadband in 2006.
Population
Most new companies that are deciding to locate in Ireland, position themselves in, or near, major population centres, where the Government's broadband programme has reached.
But concerns remain about the roll out of the plan to make broadband available on a nationwide basis.
The National Broadband Scheme aims to ensure that, by early 2010, the faster broadband service is provided in all areas of the country which do not now have a service.
- Michael Lavery
