Building the Knowledge Society - Department of Communications ...

46 Building the Knowledge Society Information Society Commission4.1\ BroadbandAccelerating ProgressThe Commission welcomes the Government’s Broadband Strategy produced in March 2002 onfoot of the report of the Inter-Departmental Telecommunications Working Group. The strategyinvolves provision of open-access Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) infrastructure within fiveyears in all 123 towns with a population of over 1,500. Phase 1 involves two parallel actions:funding of a set of pathfinder Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) projects in 20 towns; andestablishment of a PPP-type arrangement to integrate management of these local networks andto participate on an increasing basis in the capital investment needed to support further roll-out.Recent confirmation of funding to support the development of the phase 1 projects in 2003 iswelcome. The Commission is also broadly satisfied as to the streamlining of the projects in termsof common architecture standards and specification. However, the pace of progress in rolling outthe programme is significant cause for concern to the Commission and needs to be expeditedsignificantly, including arrangements for extending the initiative to the next cohort of towns.Recommendation 1:Government needs to accelerate significantly the pace of progress in implementingits broadband strategy, including putting in place as quickly as possible the PPP-typearrangement to integrate management of the Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) projects.CoherenceThe Commission notes that there is a range of Government agencies involved in the areaof telecommunications infrastructure. These include the Department of Communications,Marine and Natural Resources, Department of Finance, Department of Enterprise, Trade andEmployment, Department of Environment and Local Government, as well as the Departmentof the Taoiseach which co-ordinates the work of the Inter-Departmental TelecommunicationsWorking Group, and Forfás, which is benchmarking progress. It is imperative that theresponsibilities and activities of all these agencies are managed in such a way as to ensurethey are mutually reinforcing in contributing to overall progress.Recommendation 2:There should be a clear sense of overall strategic direction by Government to ensure that thevarious agencies that have an involvement in the area of telecommunications infrastructuredevelopment act coherently to achieve its objectives.Backbone InfrastructureA number of semi-state bodies have made significant investments in fibre optic cableinfrastructure, including with NDP support. There may be a public policy interest in leveragingaccess to this infrastructure on an interoperable and open-access basis to enhance competitionin backbone network availability.