Announcing their new fibre-to-the-home joint venture yesterday, ESB and Vodafone made reference to the quarterly reports on the State of the Internet, published by content delivery network, Akamai, and expressed confidence that their venture would propel Ireland “into the ranks of the world’s fastest broadband countries”. But according to the latest report published by Akamai last week, we’re already there.
The latest Akamai report for Q1 2014 ranks Ireland at number 10 on Average Connection Speed, at 10.7 Mbps.
This is a result of achieving the second fastest growth worldwide over the year: 47%. The highest annual growth was in South Korea, which was three times greater at 145%.
However the report highlights the inequality in broadband deployment in Ireland. The country is ranked 39th for Broadband Connectivity with just 65% of connections to Akamai at 4 MBps or greater. By contrast 91% of connections from Switzerland beat this threshold.
You can read the full report at Akamai.
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About the Author: Conn Ó Muíneacháin
RT @blacknight: Ireland in Top Ten for Internet Broadband, but 35% are in the Slow Lane: http://t.co/011mIBxjES
RT @blacknight: Ireland in Top Ten for Internet Broadband, but 35% are in the Slow Lane: http://t.co/011mIBxjES
RT @blacknight: Ireland in Top Ten for Internet Broadband, but 35% are in the Slow Lane: http://t.co/011mIBxjES
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@blacknight Like with so many things in this country. A big divide between top and bottom.
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This is nonsense. I see lower down the article there is an acknowledgement that rural connectivity is crap. Take away Dublin and what you’re left with is thousands of households relying on mobile dongles with high contention. Sometimes here Facebook struggles to load.
It’s interesting to compare Ireland with the UK in the report. They rank below us on average connection speed at number 15, but broadband is better distributed there. 80% of UK connections are > 4Mbps compared to 65% here. Perhaps it has something to do with the greater prevalence of one-off rural housing in Ireland?
Im not sure that there is more” one off” rural housing in Ireland. The U.K. includes Wales and Scotland and many islands. The truth is that the last mile copper cabling in Ireland is in a very poor state. I can take you to places near Thomastown where it’s lying in the ditch. Furthermore the phone lines are modified in favour of speech, with many connections down the same copper wire. There’s no way round this without huge infrastructure investment or a major breakthrough in transmission technology.
I had that same problem with a multiplexed speech line. At the time I had to order a new phone line, specifying that I wanted it for DSL, and then cancel the old line. Eircom simply gave the MUX line to someone else “who didn’t want broadband”. It was simply kicking the can down the road, and I can’t imagine there are many people nowadays who don’t want it.
Ireland in Top Ten for Internet Broadband, but 35% are in the Slow Lane http://t.co/4dWl0ZI92j via @blacknight
Absolutely Conn Ó Muíneacháin and, though it’s something that you clearly understand the politicians and even eircom don’t understand or refuse to acknowledge the problem.
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RT @conn: Ireland in Top Ten for Internet Broadband, but 35% are in the Slow Lane http://t.co/4dWl0ZI92j via @blacknight
Ireland in Top Ten for Internet Broadband, but 35% are in the Slow Lane http://t.co/JgzyyuS07d
RT @blacknight: Ireland in Top Ten for Internet Broadband, but 35% are in the Slow Lane http://t.co/JgzyyuS07d