Although Ireland businesses
are afforded the luxury of a well educated, skilled workforce and a supportive
government enabling ICT growth, the availability of high speed and reliable
Internet service is a critical issue in Ireland, especially for business owners
located in rural areas. Ireland is
making strides to address this deficiency such as providing wireless links and
additional broadband fiber to rural areas, however there exists much room for
improvement. According to a recent
Deloitte & Touche e-business survey, cited by Digiweb, over 45 per cent of
business owners indicated that lack of broadband was a major issue for firms
looking to develop and expand their business.[1] Until Ireland sufficiently addresses this area
of deficiency, it will not fully take advantage of its potential in ICT.
Alternative fixed-wireless
broadband services depend on a users location and are also limited to densely
populated areas. Eircom and Esat BT currently
offer ADSL services in Ireland however these are limited to urban areas where
customers need to be near a digital telephone exchange.
The answer to this dilemma
is satellite internet access. Service
is usually priced to deliver cost savings to small businesses with a flat
monthly fee of E119 upwards, for the always-on 512kb service for, with no usage
charges applied.
