Broadband will be more important than electricity

In Blog, Infrastructure by Denis Naughten

There is nobody in Ireland who believes that any home, regardless of location, should be without electricity. That belief is what drove the politicians of the last century to deliver on rural electrification.

If that decision was determined purely on a cost benefit analysis then today we would have homes in Ireland without this basic human requirement. But could we have seen the developments that we have had in agriculture, particularly in the dairy sector where we are now a global leader, were it not for electricity?

The same decision now needs to be made on rural broadband, but on this occasion the potential to exploit this technology is far greater.

For example someone in Ballymacward in County Galway could work remotely with colleagues sitting at a desk in Singapore or San Francisco. This reduces the need to travel with its climate impact and can bring well educated young families back into rural areas where they have the time to actively contribute to local community groups.

This injection of new blood alone into rural Ireland will be transformative. This is in addition to the potential broadband has to reduce the need to travel to access health care, so older people can remain in their own home and own communities much longer.

But the case for broadband becomes far more important as the uses for this technology develop, as was the case with electricity in the last century.

Within 5 years broadband will become more important than electricity. So why do I say that?

As Minister for Energy, I introduced the first grant aid for solar PV panels for homes, including grants for battery storage. I also committed Ireland at EU level to develop a pricing model to allow homeowners to export electricity onto the grid. Within 5 years, I believe that solar PV panels will become standard on roof tops across Ireland.

Today the technology is available to provide a 7 day weather forecast at farm level and within 5 years we will have very accurate sunlight forecasting for individual homes.

With the development of both of these technologies, within 5 years, external electricity supply for daily home use will be less important but you will need broadband to make it all work. For example, going out the door in the morning you will set a wash & dry for your clothes and just throw them in the machine. That machine will then link via broadband with the weather service to see when is the most opportune time during the day, that there will be enough sunlight to generate the electricity from the solar PV panels on the roof to do the wash and dry for the clothes.

This is just one very practical example of how broadband, in 5 years time, will be far more important than your external electricity supply.

Some will say that this broadband technology can be provided nationwide through the roll out of 5G mobile technology, but that is not the answer.

As Minister for Communications I started the work, the first in Europe, on the roll out of 5G technology across Ireland. As part of this work the Communications Regulator ComReg, published a report last November on the geographic roll out of 5G mobile technology.

This analysis concluded that 99.5% geographic coverage of Ireland, bringing a paltry 30mbps, would cost over €1,860m to build over a 10 year period and would require 5,910 new mast sites (out of which 313 would be in challenging terrain) and 1,252 upgrades to existing masts.

This would provide just 30mbps which is well short of the 150mbps currently proposed under the National Broadband Plan. It is also the case that by the time this network would be built out, speeds of 30mbps would be far short of what would be required by modern Irish homes.

This Government and every member of Dáil Éireann will have a decision to make over the coming weeks, do we let rural Ireland fall into the technological dark ages or do we take the bold decision of our predecessors and provide every home with the basic human necessity that is broadband?

 

Comreg report link:

https://www.oxera.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/ComReg-Future-mobile-connectivity-in-Ireland.pdf