Westport Broadband a disgrace

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="04b785a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Councillor Keith Martin </B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |    </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Councillor Keith Martin "><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="news21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News"><U><I><B><U>Back to news page</U></B></I></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG SRC="0e6b7790.jpg" border=0 width="183" height="121" ALT="Westport Broadband disgrace!" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Download Labour's  <a href="HTMLobj-369/Broadband_Policy.pdf"><u>Broadband_Policy.pdf</u> </a>  here as a PDF file</div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Westport Broadband a disgrace</I></div> <div> Cllr Keith Martin of Westport Town Council has lambasted the Government and the Irish roadband industry for not providing broadband in the Westport rural area due to their failure to roll out a nation-wide broadband network.  Cllr Martin says “the state of broadband in the Westport area is disgraceful, only in the town do we have broadband and it is slow and expensive compared to the UK, while just outside the town boundaries we barely have dial-up internet never mind broadband.</div> <div> “This is not just my opinion”, says Cllr Martin pointing out the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, stated in its report at the beginning of March that in the last two years progress in broadband development has been "almost non-existent". </div> <div> Cllr Martin adds “The problem is there has been a lack of planning and leadership from Government on this matter and the private broadband companies have been allowed to `cherry-pick' when and where they will provide the service.  If we had allowed private companies to roll out our electricity or telephone there would be people living in Carrabaun without light or telephones to this very day.  We are a small country, we are an incredibly rich country yet our national access to broadband is little better than a developing nation's.  This is a disgrace in modern Ireland.”</div> <div> Cllr Martin says that a lack of broadband is an infrastructure issue.  “In the information age we need broadband as much as we need power, roads, railway lines and telephones.  We are being left behind and those who live in the countryside are being ignored because it is easier and cheaper to provide broadband to urban and city areas.  We recently had a `road show' in town from Eircom but what was conspicuously absent from their presentations was the lack of broadband in rural areas and by rural areas I mean less than a quarter of a mile out of any of the six roads out of Westport.  I welcome the announcement of the Wireless broadband service in Westport which is due to come on-line very soon but this is just a service for the town and does nothing for those in rural areas.  We need every home in Ireland to have the option to have broadband, we need leadership from the Government and we need measures to ensure compliance and availability of service from the Irish broadband industry” concluded Cllr Martin.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>