Thank you very much for coming to Government Buildings today for the launch of the Consultation Paper on Next Generation broadband. I’d like to introduce my colleagues, Minister of State at the Department Sean Power TD, and Secretary General Aidan Dunning.
I want, on what’s a fairly dark and miserable wet morning, to throw a bit of light on the potential that exists for the economic development of this country, particularly on the back of the development of our broadband infrastructure – it’s a crucial piece of infrastructure, to the development of our new digital economy.
What I hope we can show is that there is huge potential, huge opportunity, and there are huge advances in our country and in our economy at the moment. While we can be very much taken on issues like rising energy prices, interest rate rises, credit crunches and so on, we should be aware that on an underlying basis, our economy and our trading, enterprising economy is very strong – particularly in the area of the new digital economy, which is developing across the world.
We are one of the world centres where this economy is, and will continue to develop.
We should not forget that we are the location for more than 200 leading international ICT companies based here in Ireland, often now doing leading research and doing intricate enterprising work.
We have 600 or so of our own software companies, also working in that area. We have some 400 companies in the digital media services area where there are huge opportunities and there is huge growth.
I’m just after coming back from an international visit to Korea and Japan where we were looking at some of the best practice internationally. And it was remarkable to be able to go in to some of the leading companies in the world and say, “Well you may be interested in some of the work that’s going on in Galway, where we are a centre-place for some of the developments of the Symantec web, the next development in web technologies. You may be interested in some of the work that’s going on in Dublin in Trinity College, in new mobile value chain research. You may be interested in some of the language research around digital technologies that is occurring in DCU.”
Because, we in Ireland are not only good as a productive centre for ICT, but we are also increasingly a trade, enterprise and research centre for this new digital technology.
We have to recognise – and I see it everyday – that companies are out there doing what we do well. We are a strong and effective performer in the world when we go out and trade. We are a good “link people” - as an island people, we are good at going out and trading.
Actually, there are a couple of examples that I’ll throw out to you:
FEXco down in Kerry was started by a bank manager during a bank strike, who used telecommunications technology, computer technology and Kerry wit, to develop a leading financial services trading company.
I met in Japan a young Irish man selling a product that a Cork software company had developed to fit at the end of a fibre-optic cable to improve telecoms systems, which they are selling all over the world.
There are hundreds of those examples, of new Irish companies and old Irish companies and international companies based here, which are expanding and trading successfully and which are going to thrive in an internet and digital economy that works.
The ESRI Mid Term Review [recognised that the importance of these companies recently] saying that some 70% of our international exports will be digitally traded services by 2025. That’s where we’re going and that’s why this Government is utterly committed to the development of the broadband infrastructure that will facilitate that trade.
It’s interesting, I was reading the paper this morning and was thinking back – I came into the Dáil in 2002 and one of the first jobs we did as members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee was develop a broadband report. Deputy Coveney who is here today was also involved. We spent a year or two looking at what was happening. It wasn’t that long ago (2003, 2004) and it’s interesting just to look and see where we were.
We had no investment effectively at that time in our main platforms and that’s why we’ve been likened to be playing catch up. We had some 3000 people connected to broadband in the country. The fastest speed you could get was maybe about half a megabit, and that was a real problem.
It’s important to consider that timeframe to recognise where we are today, because while we were slow starting, we have been catching up rapidly and it’s a fundamentally different environment today, in terms of broadband to what it was just three years ago.
Today there are over one million people, compared to 3000, connected to broadband. We are one of the top three fastest growing connection countries in the OECD. There is a wide variety of operators across a range of different platforms – cable, fixed line, wireless, satellite, mobile – all delivering services to the Irish people.
The Telecoms Industry Federation set out recently the principles of broadband development here and recognised that the industry is investing some €700 million per year on upgrading those networks to deliver that service. The speeds now – we’re even seeing companies coming out in the last week such is the speed of change – are one hundred times faster. The fastest speed available to domestic users in the country is 50 mbps.
So there is change. We need to be careful, and in a general sense in terms of our economic development, that we do not talk ourselves down as a people, that we do not talk down the real economic progress and opportunities that exist within our country
Those OECD league tables are slightly tricky because our household size is much larger. But even taking those statistics and including mobile broadband penetration, which they are now doing and which is an area where we are growing very quickly in comparison to other countries – we are now above the OECD average in terms of the levels of interconnectivity. And you have to remember, that’s the OECD – the top thirty countries in the world. We’re in the top fifteen and we are now setting a target to leap further from there and actually becoming one of the very best in the world.
The question now and what we’re trying to set out in this paper, is how do we do that? How do we continue to position Ireland as one of the best and easiest countries in the world to develop this new knowledge and digital economy?
I’d like to briefly describe, if I can, the development of the digital economy and what’s happening.
There are a number of different things happening.
Convergence is happening – it’s been talked about for a long time and we now have integration between the communications and broadcasting industry, the telecommunications industry and the computing industry. They’re becoming interchangeable. Our telecoms companies are working with broadcasting companies to see how to develop digital terrestrial television. Our software companies are looking to see how to get digital applications to the customer via these new telecommunications networks, which aren’t just telecommunications networks anymore – they’re access networks to this new internet world.
And I just think in simple terms about how that world works. If you look at the speed of change that is occurring even in the computing industry – the change that’s occurring from a computer, which since I came out of school in 1981 – has pretty much maintained the same system – a box, hardware, disk drive, screen. That’s changing now where your computer will be an access device. Where your information will be stored remotely with the concept of cloud computing. That has huge consequences for how this new internet economy will develop. Because that access device is crucial, it can move with you, it will be mobile – you can have it at home but it’s also going to be in work, it will be on the move.
And you can access material information in a very flexible way. It’s going to be your work place because all of your files wherever you are, are going to be accessible from that. It’s going to be your communications device. You will be able to talk to your son in the morning or whatever. That’s the access device we’re going to have.
[Our children] are going to use these access devices in school, and will have the widest library available to them.
We are already a country that is flexible with such access systems. We’re actually one of the most active countries when it comes to buying online. We were very quick to pick up mobile technology, social networking and a whole range of these new technologies that are setting the pace in the digital world. We are a young people; we are flexible and are relatively open to what’s happening in the rest of the world. We have to provide an infrastructure that suits that access, and that gives people the opportunity to do all sorts of interesting things. And not just people.
One of the clear messages coming out of the conference in Korea is that we are now developing an internet of things, not just an internet of people. It will be a network of networks which will in many ways connect a lot of material devices to each other to provide economic information, or services in an efficient [manner] and a whole range of different access devices and platforms that will connect this network of networks together.
That is the world that is developing. That is the economy that we have to fit in with if we are to be a successful knowledge, digital economy and that’s what we in government are going to have to try and create as a policy requirement.
There has to be a business case for the people who will build the networks for that access system and that access device and the core and other background devices that support it. What’s seen clearly from around the world is that in this area, the technology is changing so quickly. The Japanese next generation networks – they’re looking at energy efficiency gains of one hundredth of the energy they use in new switching technology compared to previous technology in five or ten years time. That’s a radical change that’s occurring because of the technological opportunities.
It is best for people at the coalface in business to decide where that investment in those technologies are developed, so we have to provide a comfortable, secure and confident environment as much as possible for businesses who are going to provide that access system. We need to be an open access system – people have to have that flexibility to move from one network to another or to bring in digital applications that no one has even considered yet into such access networks. And that’s difficult for the access providers, because they have to be concerned about the business case.
I am very comforted by the fact that the TIF and ALTO, set out themselves principles of a cooperative but competitive environment which is the best way for ward for us. I believe it is possible for us to build on the series of digital applications that make the economic case for these networks. I don’t believe that there is “one big bang” that will deliver it, today or in the immediate future but I do believe there is an opportunity for that country which is best at providing ubiquitous open access networks, to build up the series of blocks of digital applications, each of which has an economic case and return for both the access provider and the deliverer of the service, to make it a successful environment for investment and for the development for Ireland as one of the leading countries in the world in terms of such access networks.
I say ubiquitous because that is also an important concept – that we cover the whole country, that no one is left behind. This is a developing technology that is as essential as the road network that we build to every house in the country, as essential as the electricity wires which we strategically determined would go to every house in the country around the foundation of this State. Such ubiquitous access also helps to facilitate the range of new applications, the whole change in society that makes the business case easier. When everyone is connected, it’s much easier to develop these new services. And we need to do this. In the last census, roughly 65% of houses have a computer; roughly half our houses are now broadband connected. So getting the next leap forward means we need to get computers and access systems into homes. That is our task.
Government has a new role in this. As I said, the main investment at the moment is coming from the private sector and I think that is right. It’s very significant investment. We have a competitive market with various platforms competing against each other. The government is also there in partnership and will be there in partnership to help deliver those services that business and the market cannot deliver, to support that open, competitive and cooperative platform whenever we can.
I will finish by setting out the actions that this Consultation paper sets out, as an example of the way that we see in Government that we can support this developing economy.
Firstly, in these difficult economic times, we must give confidence to our people in what may be dark cloudy economic times. The statistical analysis and the sense of certainty in terms of where we actually are have been far from clear – but that should not cloud us from the fact that we are catching up, we are now ahead of the OECD average and well-placed to make this leap forward.
We are also committed in Government to make the business investments that will deliver our future economy. There are difficult budgetary times and there will be difficult choices in terms of spending, but the Minister for Finance and this Government and the Taoiseach have made absolutely clear that the investments in new infrastructure which help deliver this key economy are going to be provided. We are actually going to trade our way through with enterprise, any international economic difficulty and environment that we may be in.
I think it’s important to set out the first of the ten commitments involved, the commitment of Government under the National Development Plan to do what we can in Government to provide services where necessary.
The second commitment and it’s a crucial one as I said earlier on, is to ensure that we do actually have everyone included, that we have full and open access to each and every house in this country to avail of this network. We must set the standards for ourselves that we will be at the same standard if not better than the best in our international competitive environment.
Speeds are important, but are not the only crucial measure of where success is. In many places it’s the flexible, ubiquitous access that determines which countries are the best in developing this new digital economy.
The Government is committed towards, on a phased basis, putting in 100 MB connectivity in every secondary school in the country, putting in local wireless connectivity so that every child in every secondary school classroom has the potential to get such simultaneous online access and online learning as we develop the educational system.
We already have a lot of good work in this area. We have in HEAnet, a really effective service delivering in the education area. In the third level sector we’re actually ahead of the game compared to other countries. In UCD, there is something like 900 wireless hotspot connecting points, 14000 students connected onto an open access system. That’s just one example that we should be aware of, where real progress is being made.
We will continue to further invest in projects such as the Metropolitan Area networks, and to make full use of those networks to deliver services across the country in regions that otherwise would not have had fibre investment. Next Monday I will be putting before the Oireachtas, and publishing on our own website a copy of the Value fro Money report, in terms of the effectiveness and some of the strategic decisions around that first phase of the MANS Scheme.
That open access to policy information and discussions has been a hallmark of this Department for many years. It is an opportunity for us as a country to be open in terms of how we set policy, how we change policy, how we are flexible as a country.
We are also committed to continuing the high level of international connectivity in our country. One of the earlier investments from Government was the global crossing system. I am delighted today to announce that we are also investing in Project Kelvin which will improve connectivity between North West of our island and North America – it will improve high-speed, fibre access across the Atlantic to link us in to this global digital economy.
We will continue to look at applications where it is appropriate for the state in conjunction and partnership with the private sector to provide connectivity.
Crucially that connectivity will also relate to backhaul networks. The Government is committing today to work collectively itself, and with its agency to provide open access to any ducting that exists in infrastructure, be it road, gas or any other public infrastructure and build it into new infrastructure, so that we can provide to business, on an open access m non-discriminatory manner such backhaul connectivity which is a vital component in evolving next generation broadband networks.
We are also working with the Department of the Environment to commit to new regulations by the end of the year to ensure that new housing developments will have open access fibre optic connections built in from the start, [so a cheaper quicker effective system is put in place]
Another key component in the development of our digital system is a strong, effective independent regulatory system. I believe we have a particularly competent regulator in this area – diligent but fair – it’s not an easy job and it’s not an easy place to be. We are well served by our regulator, and I think that we will be calling on it to be innovative (and it is already innovative) in areas like spectrum allocation where we have a real competitive advantage as a country and to deliver regulation that assists businesses in the development of these new networks.
We will also ourselves look to use our own public services as a means of stimulating broadband demand. CMOD in the Department of Finance has a central role in the management of our own telecommunications, broadband and e government services and I am very confident that CMOD is playing a progressive role and that we will work in conjunction with them to deliver a new information and knowledge society.
Lastly, we need to do more research. We need to work with the (ESRI so that we get real knowledge of what the advantages are, what the real realities statistical and otherwise) are, the economic opportunities that exist in the new digital economy. So we need further research. The ESRI will be a perfect partner so that any ongoing policy is based on realistic, scientific, fact-based [information].
I’ll finish with one last concept– we must set ourselves up as a test-bed in the world for the development of telecommunications technologies and digital applications. We are the right size - it’s much easier to do it here than in [many other countries]. We’re a modern, nice-sized economy with a well educated young people who are open to this new digital age. Why not place ourselves - as a country that has these ICT companies based here, that has its own indigenous software companies, that has endless trading and creative skills - as a place where such trade can be localised, and such technologies can be developed? [The opportunities are endless]
ENDS