Ireland has been ranked eighth out of the 28 EU member states for its broadband connectivity in European Commission’s 2015 Digital Economy and Society Index.
The report finds that Ireland’s overall take-up of fast broadband has increased considerably over the last year, with subscriptions up from 35pc to 45pc. Use of internet services has also generally increased, with 68pc using video on demand, 63pc using social networking, 62pc using online shopping, 60pc using online banking and 56pc of internet users using eGovernment actively.
It finds, however, that more progress is needed on increasing digital skills, with only 53pc of the population having sufficient digital skills to operate effectively online, down from 56pc in 2012. Work is also needed on the number of skilled ICT professionals in the economy (around half of enterprises trying to employ ICT specialists report difficulties doing so), as well as in the integration of digital technologies by enterprises (for example, 23pc of businesses use electronic information sharing technologies and 4pc use RFID).
The report places Ireland falls in the cluster of medium performance countries, where it performs slightly above average.
"Since 2010 industry has invested €2.5bn in network infrastructure and similar substantial capital investment will be made over the next few years to further improve broadband service,” said director of Telecommunications and Internet Federation (TIF), Torlach Denihan. “This unprecedented investment took place while telecoms charges to the consumer fell by 10.2pc by comparison with the consumer price index from 2010 to 2015 and other utilities became significantly more expensive.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Grainne Rothery
Quelle/Source: Business & Leadership, 22.06.2015
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