INTERNET
Czech mate for Irish broadband
13-10-2006
by Emmet Ryan
Steve Staunton's charges may have drawn with the Czech Republic on Wednesday but the Czechs are outplaying Ireland on the broadband front.
Figures released by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) show the Czech Republic has overtaken Ireland in the latest rankings on broadband penetration for the world's industrialised nations.
Ireland drops one place from the 2005 survey of 30 countries to 24th place -- swapping position with the Czech Republic who move up to 23rd having finished narrowly behind Ireland last year.
There are now 15.5 broadband subscriptions for every 100 people in the OECD but Ireland has only 9.2 connections per 100 people with a total of 372,300 subscribers in June. Despite the drop in ranking the penetration in Ireland is up from 6.7 people per 100 in 2005.
"It goes with the growth we've been expecting," said Damien Mulley, chairman of consumer broadband lobby group Ireland Offline. "It's not enough, and we haven't even reached the target of 450,000 connections recommended in the Forfas report in 2004. Ireland's ranking has dropped because the other OECD countries are growing as much, or more, than us."
The total number of subscribers in the OECD increased by 33 percent on last year's figures, going from 136 million in 2005, to 181 million this year.
Northern European countries continue to set the pace with Denmark, Iceland and Finland finishing respectively first, third and sixth in the rankings. Korea was the highest ranked non-European country finishing fourth. The Netherlands came in second with Switzerland third. All of the top six have at least 25 subscribers for every 100 people, while pace setter Denmark has 29.3 users per 100.
With 63 percent of all users, DSL is the most popular broadband platform. Cable has 29 percent of the market while other formats take up 8 percent.
DSL is the leading platform in all but two of the OECD members but cable is the most popular format in Canada and the United States. The US has the most broadband users in the OECD with 57 million subscribers and US broadband subscribers now represent 36 percent of all broadband connections in the OECD, up from 31 percent in December 2005.
Mexico, which ranks 29th in the survey, bucks the trend of its NAFTA partners with 2.1 subscribers per 100 people using DSL compared to just 0.7 per 100 using cable. Greece finished bottom of the rankings; 2.7 users per 100 people use DSL with zero penetration for other formats.
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