Its worth a quick look at the area of broadband – or the lack of it in parts. The statistics graphed below come from the OECD and a point to be remembered here is that the OECD don’t take wireless broadband or 3G into the equation. The reason for this is that it’s so a direct comparison can be made from country to country!
So the graph below is a comparison of “Internet connections which are fixed line and exceed speeds of 256kb”
Regardless, you can see that we lag behind the rest of the OECD by some distance. Our 20.6% penetration looks low, but if you added in the estimated 310,000 mobile broadband users, this figure would tip us over the OECD average parking us at 28% penetration (where France is on the chart). But then again, I would suggest that if all the OECD countries added in their respective wireless subscribers – all would remain equal.
To look at this another way, ComReg suggest that there are a total of 1.47m internet subscribers currently in Ireland. 86% of these are Broadband subscribers and the remaining 145k are still on old modems. Further, of the 1.27m broadband subscribers, 28% of these are Mobile Broadband subscribers, which is the methodology that is diving the market. 64% of new broadband subscriptions in Q1 2009 were through mobile broadband.
This is most likely driven, not by offers or enticements, but through frustration and poor service. Broadband via fixed line is impossible in some parts of the country and individuals living in these technology deserts wishing to get broadband are simply driven into the arms of mobile broadband providers.