Slow roll-out of Eircom broadband is costing money, jobs & investment in Kildare - Daly

Dutch broadband is ten times faster at half the price

Kildare South Fine Gael General Election candidate, Cllr Ricahrd Daly, has slammed Eircom for its slow progress in rolling out broadband and its refusal to upgrade telephone exchanges in rural areas.

“In some cases, it is taking up to 18 months to get a telephone line installed in parts of South Kildare, let alone broadband. There are still pockets of Kildare without broadband which were not included in last roll out.

“The recent announcement by Eircom that it will not upgrade exchanges with a thousand lines or less leaves rural Ireland in the lurch. Not alone is Eircom not prepared to provide the service themselves, but the company is actually blocking other telecoms companies that want to enter the market because of the failure of ComReg to insist on local loop unbundling.

“Minister Dempsey needs to re-evaluate what he considers a success in the roll-out of broadband when only 440 telephone exchanges out of 1,100 have been, or are going to be, upgraded.

“Irish broadband customers pay up to €50 a month for a broadband service that is much slower than other countries. It is clear that Minister Dempsey is not taking his responsibility seriously in terms of the roll-out of broadband.

“In The Netherlands, customers pay €22 a month for 20 megabyte broadband while Irish customers pay eircom more than twice as much for just one megabyte broadband.

“As a result, rural Ireland is losing, money, time, jobs and investment.”

(ENDS)