Fergus Cassidy

Yard stick

NEVER mind modern technology. This government seems to have a problem with the old stuff and was in dire need of a plumber last week. Seems the cabinet sprung a leak.

Through the Sunday Business Post, we learned of 'discussions' and 'consultations' during 2003 between the government and communications industry chiefs on the troubled tale of broadband roll-out.

Cabinet leaks these days seem not to be followed by a call for a garda investigation, which wasn't always the case. But the government stayed silent, claiming the leaked documents were covered by cabinet confidentiality.

The juicy detail coming from the leaked documents was an offer of Euro1.8bn to Eircom to cooperate on the roll-out of broadband throughout the entire country as fast as possible.

In 2003, a US consultancy, run by comms guru Ira Magaziner, was engaged to review broadband strategy in Ireland. Magaziner was to consult all the main industry players and report back to cabinet on his findings.

He apparently believed that a broadband strategy which didn't involve Eircom was futile and various options of public investment were put forward and rejected by Eircom.

In response Eircom, according to the Sunday Business Post, said that it didn't consider the proposals as realistic and that it engaged in "general" discussions with Magaziner.

Magaziner's consultancy said it "held several meetings with Eircom and then facilitated five meetings between the department of communications and Eircom, all of which have been done discretely".

Discretely? In February 2003, three months before the consultant's report was delivered to the cabinet, the Taoiseach spoke about the meetings in the Dail. He said: "All of the private companies in the communications area are working together under a report prepared by Ira Magaziner to try to get broadband moving".

So where are we now? Judging by recent events, the situation regarding broadband has become deeply politicised. And about time too.

It didn't take as long as some believed for broadband to reach this stage. It's only a couple of years since those who started campaigning for decent internet access were dismissed as garrulous geeks.

But it is still Ireland after all, and like its distant relative, a Celtic tiger never changes its spots. Governments have known about the strategic importance of decent internet access for the guts of a decade and all there is to show for it is a Mexican stand-off.

I suppose things have gone full circle in a way. As government ignored repeated warnings on the consequences of selling the telephone network and sold it anyway, it's only fitting that it is now faced with the full ramifications of that decision.

It was refreshing to hear Noel Dempsey, the newly-appointed communication's minister, allude to this mistake on television recently when he mentioned that the government wouldn't consider selling the electricity distribution network for the reasons learned on the telecoms rollercoaster ride.

Ireland is not the only country that has troublesome telephone companies. They've been at it for years, blocking innovation at every turn. Decades ago these companies had an iron grip on what devices could be connected to their telephone network.

They didn't want fax machines connected and used performance and safety as excuses. Computer modems were next for the quarantine queue. That's business I suppose and all the reams of consultancy paper telling governments it would be different once the telephone companies were sold-off was just business too.

As I've mentioned here before, the money the government received for Telecom Eireann may be tied up in the national pension scheme but an awful lot more money will be needed in the future if Ireland doesn't extract itself from the telecommunications quagmire.

This is not a good situation to be in right now. Everyone is standing off and waiting for someone else to blink first. Last week's leak showed all the signs of a government which has become exasperated and decided not to be discreet about showing it.

Letting off steam maybe but let's hope that's all it is. For it falls to government to fix this situation and do it quickly.

The environment post the sale of Telecom Eireann was envisaged to be a heavily regulated one, to compensate for and balance monopolistic tendencies and drive competition. The situation with internet access and broadband is, in the last analysis, a failure of regulation. It just hasn't worked. And that's a failure of government.

Without ownership of the telephone network, there is only regulation. If the carrots didn't work then it's time for some stick.

It's already a pain in the ass for the rest of us.