We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
IRELAND HAS MADE significant progress in developing its digital sector but still has a “long way to go” if its to bring small businesses up to speed, according to the Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte.
Speaking at the launch of UPC’s second report on Ireland’s Digital Future, Rabbitte said that getting more small companies to do business online is still a major issue, with 47,000 SMEs and SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) not having a website.
Initiatives like the trading online vouchers programme, which is expected to be launched this summer, are expected to help encourage more small businesses to factor in online shopping into their overall business plan.
Broadly, I think we have made considerable progress, but if we are to stay competitive and keep up with our world peers, we have to accelerate that progress.
Another problem was that while overall broadband speeds have risen – 30 per cent of Irish adults now have access to broadband speeds of 30Mbps or higher compared to 10 per cent in 2012 – there was still a “significant divide” between the quality of service provided in urban and rural Ireland.
“In terms of the basic infrastructure itself… the average speeds increased but there’s still a significant divide between urban Ireland and provincial Ireland,” said Rabbitte. “We have sought to acknowledge that in government policy by agreeing an extensive state intervention program to the parts of rural Ireland that couldn’t expect this service.”
Rabbitte was hopeful that the rollout of fibre broadband across the country would help bring broadband to rural areas as well as facilitate economic growth by allowing more SMEs to develop a digital presence.
Despite the differences in broadband quality, Irish businesses were found to be far ahead of the EU average for social media adoption and 53 per cent of Irish firms said they are influenced by online feedback from consumers and customers.
Digital report
In UPC’s digital report, it’s estimated that Ireland’s internet economy will grow from €8.4 billion this year to €21.1 billion by 2020, with consumer spending contributing to 60 per cent (€13 billion) of this figure.
Currently, more than 49,000 people work in the internet economy full time, and it’s predicted that another 79,000 extra jobs will be created in this sector by 2020.
While Irish consumers are more savvy about researching products before buying, as much as 60 per cent (€3.5 billion) of the €6 billion spent by consumers goes abroad.
UPC’s CEO Magnus Ternsjö said that education and assistance as well as incentives for SMEs, such as possible tax reliefs, could help encourage Irish businesses to increase their digital presence.
When asked how much they would want to be paid to go without the internet, most said they would want €130 a month, or €1,300 a year, as compensation, higher than the average subscription value of €37 per month.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I’ll give a more in depth comment when the reminder of the article downloads. See ye all in 4 hrs
Maybe move from loserland and into civilisation. We have awesome internet.
And, of course, the big smoke is “civilised”. Hmmm …
Jimbo I doubt if I live in loserland as u put it. If I did we’d probably be neighbours
Good man jimbo… Been outside the M50 much?
Jesus Christ!!! How much longer do we have to listen to Muppet Ministers spout the same old rubbish about things they clearly don’t understand?
“We’ve made significant progress”, no we haven’t, what we’ve done is continue with the same old rubbish. If I said I’ll pay up to 100% of my taxes, only pay 50%, and when Rabbitte & Co. come after me just shrug and point out I said “up to 100% of my taxes” would I get away with it? No, not a bloody chance, so why should this be called “significant progress” because the speed has increased for some people. Would Rabbitte & Co. be satisfied with my 50% if they got a bit extra from some people, not a bloody chance? So why do we except an inferior service from our providers year after year when Irish broadband is amongst the most expensive in Europe?
2mb download. I know a few eircom engineers and when you look on there system it says the line should take 5mb. Town I work in not upgraded to e fibre . All surrounding cabinets upgraded except the ones the businesses are connected to. Go figure
I was in west Kerry over the weekend trying to get updates on the phone. I might have well been on Mars
I was on Mars and it was not much better.
How many of the 47,000 SMEs and SOHO that don’t have a website are based in the country?
How many of those 47,000 are individual traders like electricians, plumbers & plasterers, who work within the local community and get work via word of mouth?
How many of those SMEs and SOHO’s would actually benefit from having a website, after all a local plumber in Donegal is hardly going to need a website that will enable him to quote for bleeding a radiator down in Kerry.
Must better to hide the lack of fixed any line broadband within rural areas by blaming the SMEs and SOHO in rural areas for not having websites., when one of the main reasons these SMEs and SOHOs don’t have websites is because of the lack of fixed line broadband.
spent the weekend in a nice hotel in Roscommon and did a couple of speedtests on their LAN..: 0.02mB down & up, and a ping of 1.183 seconds. Did it several times, not much difference.
Ah, the “knowledge economy”, eh ? Is that code for the “s.f.a.” economy then ?
Sounds like you had a crazy time.
Did you pull?
It is more important that country people get funded to speak Irish rather than create jobs and develop IT and associated businesses. Our remote areas could be turned into digital hubs for most foreign investment as we speak English and that is what these companies are after. But no – our politicians think it is better to have another famine in the form of emigration from these places. Irish is not needed to get a job in any other country. Wake Up.
You are bang on. Why can’t there be a digital hub in the Midwest instead of Dublin Dublin Dublin? A lot of companies outside Dublin still do business with Dublin based agencies but there is no reason the expertise could not be located around Ireland
Because Barry it is unlikely that sufficient techies would want to move there whatever its charms. techies are generally younger and like the amenities that cities offer.
That is true but I know a good few people who work in Dublin because they have no choice as opposed to wanting to be there
If you live in the arseend of nowhere then you just have to expect substandard infrastructure
Exactly. instead they expect Dublin to subsidise them.
And you then expect the arseend of no where to provide your water !
The water is paid for or at least it soon will be. If you live in the ar$e end of nowhere you should expect to pay more for services and infrastructure or do without.
The country provides the lumber for your furniture, the food for your meals and drinks, the stone for your buildings, the metal for your industry, the water for your tea and washing, the mountains and lakes for your recreation. If we were to build a big wall to separate the city from the country, I wonder which would survive the longest?
I’d take the silage smell any day over 1million Dublin farts!
@Jimbo – subsidised by Dublin you say ? Interesting concept that………….there again Dublin is used to the rest of the country subsidising it’s infrastructure…you, like, oh……LUAS, DART, Dublin Bus, M50 (twice or three times over) etc etc………
Good job ye don’t want our water :)
The city would starve Brian. But the Jackeens wouldn’t care to admit that.
Um…Eric, the beauty of living in the arse end of nowhere is that we have Wells…enjoy your water bill in urban land!
Dublin subsidises no one. Generations of governments of this island has prioritised exchequer support to this area, driving a property bubble straining basic urban infracstructure, water, waste, sewage to the limit.
Rural LPT for water? Public lighting? Paths? Parks? Even road maintenance a joke. Judging by European election with 3 seats in Dublin and 8 through out the rest of Ireland your comment would suggest each citizen if Dublin is carrying just under 3 rural wasters on their shoulders. Don’t think economic activity in Dublin is generating ~75% of the national wealth.
Ireland is too small to even suggest that either those who reside in the expanded region of the Pale or those outside this fictitious line can exist independently.
1.2 mb/s on a good day. 2 miles from major town. Joke.
2mb line here. Thats bad enough but whats worse is 2km away exactly 2km is where upc and their 150mb lines end. :/
You think 2km is bad? I live on the bank of the Royal Canal. The opposite side of the canal has UPC and their 150mb fibre connections. We’re stuck with Eircom and their crappy 2mb speed. Good old Irish way of doing things.
Everything is better in the city. Everything.
Not the air quality.
Or prices.
Angelic
Could not agree more. The drug pushers are better in the city. Imagine some rural areas don’t yet have their own pushers.
No it’s not. I hate this stupid urban/rural divide thing. Yes, there are things that are better in the city than in the country, such as public transport, cinemas, theatres, sports facilities, etc. But it’s also more expensive, less friendly, poor air quality, noisy, etc. There are good and bad points to both places. Why do people have to be so contrary and argumentative? Typical Irish begrudgery and one-upmanship.
yeah there’s nothing better than absolute silence and the smell of silage when you’re waiting 10 minutes for a youtube video to buffer
If you can smell the silage it means it’s a beautiful sunny day. Why the heck would you be stuck inside looking at youtube videos when you could be out in the great outdoors, whether it’s lying beside a lake, hiking through mountains, walking on forest trails, playing football with mates, etc.?
It’s because whistler has no mates Brian.
Yeah especially the cost of living the junkies the crime rate and that god awful stoorie buuud. I will gladly put up with the clean air and beautiful countryside and slower broadband to avoid all that.
Or Billy, you could just not hang about on Talbot Street / O’Connell Street when you’re in Dublin. Swear none of you had ever been in Dublin 2, 4 or 6. Or the suburbs. As far as Internet connection goes… The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Just might not be cost effective for telecoms providers to lay lines outside of populated areas.
Or footing turf!
Good Silage smells great, but you have to be close to it to smell it.
I wish I had broadband where I live (dial up is all my Eircom line provides) as it’s to expensive to upgrade the line ( I live to far from the exchange) all I can say is god bless Vodafone mobile for internet connection
Of course there is a rural/urban speed difference.
It can’t be otherwise?
When, for the love of God, when? 2025…..
50mb down, 15mb up on eFibre, thank feck I don’t live in the countryside..
30mb?
I live in Kildare and my internet speed is about 1.5mb
4 years ago the roads for miles around here were up for months whilst UPC installed cable. Thats all they did. No sign of connection or even an estimated availability yet.
Why won’t he admit that 4G solves rural speed issues?
Because most of can’t even get 3G!
4g uses the old analog Tv freqencies. These frequencies keep signal over longer distances and “survive” better through obstacles such as buildings, hills, haypiles and dungheaps. It is the way forward for all those people who destroyed our countryside with one-off housing and 10-mile long linear villages.
Urban areas will always be ahead of the curve on speeds from fixed line/cable. Get over it and stop complaining.
Nob much Alan?
I’m over it. I’m happy with e-fibre. But why you don’t seem to be happy with people who choose to live outside urban areas is beyond me. They own the land on which their houses are built.
Where are we with Pat Rabbitte’s commitment to minimum 30 Mbps by 2015 for all citizens?
The problem is you have a dinosaur in pat rabbitte as the minister!
It doesn’t stop at Broadband, Pat.
Mr Rabbitte and Co should also look at the difference in intake of Property Tax between Urban and Rural locations and get the culchies to cough up their fair share.
Are u listening Mr Hogan.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Non-TCF/GVL Vendors
have your say