Rural society and broadband services

Like the child benefit issue there is an important principle at stake in the broadband debate: that of universality. It is not the mark of a society which takes democratic principles seriously to ignore either the welfare of children, in terms of child benefit, or the geographically and economically marginalised, in terms or rural broadband services.

I wish to focus first on the economic aspect to this issue. The Communications Workers Union recently made a submission to the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources as part of its consultation process on Next Generation Networks. The submission discussed the importance of bridging the digital divide and the options for delivering high quality broadband to rural Ireland.

It did so in the context of the important role the Next Generation Network (NGN) has to play in helping to secure the economic and social future of this country. NGNs are the new generation of telecoms networks that can provide multiple services over a single infrastructure. It pointed our how the development of a truly national NGN will have clear implications for efficiency and job creation and hence should be treated as a strategically important development. This development will act as a guarantor of the island's future success as a small open economy on the edge of Europe, an economy whose success depends on maintaining a competitive presence in a highly globalised marketplace.

The Communications Workers Union has listed the key elements for what is required in order to facilitate the growth and development of a NGN in Ireland. They include:

• A clear strategic vision from Government on how it will realise its vision of a truly national NGN that leaves no-one behind and which will help to secure the economic and social future of the country.
• A realisation and acceptance by the Government that leaving the provision of NGN solely to the private sector will not be enough to deliver on this vision given the specific challenges of our dispersed, rural population.
• A corresponding realization of the need for State intervention. The nature and extent of this intervention, when clarified, will help to provide important clarity to marketplace on where investment needs to be directed.
• A revised regulatory approach to NGN that recognises that this phase of the evolution of the market is based on a new business model and that the regulatory approach required must facilitate sustainable competition and investment in the long term which allows those companies making the investments an opportunity to realise a fair return.
• The digital divide must be embraced as a critical obstacle to the fair and balanced development of the economy and society in significant parts of our island. The digital divide is a serious impediment to job creation, SME development and a balanced society that has equal access to services.

These points are made on the back of studies which have found a significant correlation between a nation's broadband quality and its advancement as a knowledge economy. Any failure of Government policy to deal with the challenge of the digital divide would send a critical message to those citizens affected that they cannot participate in the knowledge economy and represent a betrayal of the principle that no-one should be left behind.

Unfortunately the aspirations of the CWU are not met by the current provisions of the National Broadband Scheme (NBS). As the Irish Rural Link has pointed out up to 12,000 houses and business premises are not covered by the National Broadband Scheme. This figure excludes those whose only broadband options are prohibitively expensive or of poor quality. Rural Ireland’s ability to contribute to the Government’s “smart economy” vision is severely constrained by the lack of broadband and high latency and contention ratios and relatively slow speeds. The NBS will not allow rural Small and Medium Enterprises to fully realise their potential. Hence the need to see beyond the strict letter of the NBS and adhere to the spirit behind its implementation. The Labour party motion points this out forcibly, as does the CWU’s call for a national NGN.

Other countries, who of course are also our competitors, are investing in high speed, high quality broadband. However, despite the Government’s “Smart Economy” document published in December, no coherent vision for a national broadband service has been tabled.

Finally, I wish to briefly touch upon another, oft neglected aspect of this debate. There is a trend in Irish culture towards increasing technocracy and utilitarianism. In order to politically justify something you are expected to answer the categorical question: how much money can be made from this? The value of genuine communitarianism and social solidarity is being reduced to the balance sheet, as is the categorical imperative of human dignity. We see this in debates about embryo research and also in discussions about caring for the elderly and the disabled. It is vital we recognising the importance of rural Ireland to the social fabric of the nation, and it is vital also that we recognise the level of isolation felt by many residents in rural Ireland – and not just the elderly. I do not wish to given the impression that we are not in the midst of an economic crisis and that we can be as fiscally liberal as we like. Cuts have to be made. Spending has to be reduced. Yet at the same time society is not at the service of the economy, rather the economy is at the service of society. And an integral part of our society is our rural population.