The newly appointed Communications Minister, Denis Naughten has said that broadband will becoming an “enforceable right” for all Irish citizens in 2017, with speeds expected to be at least 30Mbps.
With the majority of the country still having internet speeds as slow as 5Mbps or even worse, Naughten said he is going to try and make the issue high on the government’s agenda, and make it an enforceable right that people around the country have a minimum of 30Mbps.
The UK is lagging behind us in terms of speed, a paltry 10Mbps is considered relatively high over there, while many parts of the east coast of Ireland have fibre optic speeds of up to 100Mbps, many other parts down the country and from Kerry to Donegal experience speeds of literally 2 – 5Mbps.
Tech adviser James Lawrence said:
“There’s a major shift before east and west in terms of broadband. The east has fibre optic, while the west is practically on dial-up. It almost feels like the west has been neglected and the east has gotten the newest technologies.”