Time to switch off Irish copper network and plug into full fibre broadband for digital economy shift
full fibre networks
.
Yet the majority, almost 90 per cent, of Irish businesses are not using the technology at all. Instead, thousands of businesses continue to get by on outdated and unfit-for-purpose copper broadband.
Full fibre describes fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) broadband, considered the gold standard, which provides a direct fibre optic connection into a home or business bringing with it advantages of higher speeds, more reliable connectivity and enhanced security.
In contrast, other types of fixed broadband rely on copper cables for part or all of the connection, which can limit speeds and resilience.
READ MORE
The benefits of enhanced connectivity for businesses include faster uploads and downloads, seamless file sharing and use of cloud services, smooth, no-lag video calls or glitch-free payment terminals.
Often this isn't the norm in businesses using slow copper broadband that is long past its sell-by date.
FTTP is a future-proofed technology. As a business grows, its data demands do, too. A full fibre connection allows businesses increase bandwidths from 1 to 2 to 10 Gigabits, all the way to 50 Gigabits, eventually.
[
Cork town to be first fully connected to fast broadband
Opens in new window
]
Fibre-optic cables are harder to tap into, reducing risk of data breaches or unauthorised access. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/ Getty Images
As business operations integrate technologies such as AI, they need higher speeds and larger bandwidths, FTTP can accommodate these requirements with ease.
Enhanced security is another aspect. Fibre-optic cables are harder to tap into, reducing risk of data breaches or unauthorised access. Equally, fibre optic technology is less prone to weather-related outages, helping businesses stay connected and productive.
FTTP delivers on customer experience, too. Reliable internet ensures smoother transactions, faster website performance and uninterrupted customer communications, leading to greater customer satisfaction.
Some 76% of premises can now access full fibre broadband. In 2015, when Siro began rolling out Ireland's first full fibre broadband network, few predicted in over a decade Ireland would be drawing ever closer to being fully fibred.
Now, through the
National Broadband Plan
underpinned by public and private investment of up to €5 billion and an engaged telecoms sector, Ireland achieving the Government's target of gigabit connectivity for all by 2028 is possible.
With Government often criticised over its delivery of strategic infrastructure, this achievement is noteworthy.
In residential urban areas, where three commercial network operators, including
Siro
, are rolling out full fibre broadband, take-up at 50 per cent is relatively positive. This figure continues to grow, with FTTP broadband reaching new areas all the time and consumers, often in long-term contracts, moving to full fibre broadband once these expire.
In rural intervention areas, public monies of up to €2.7 billion are being invested to roll-out full fibre. There, take-up at 35 per cent is reasonable with a pathway for further growth and taxpayers' investment protected by virtue of single fibre operator with no competition to dilute its market share.
[
National broadband plan to require additional €80m
Opens in new window
]
The UK will switch off copper in January 2027 and Spain recently completed their switch off. Photograph: Getty Images
Understandably, the focus of policymakers and industry has, to date, been on rolling out full fibre broadband networks. Yet it's a mistake to believe there are no more connectivity challenges.
In our SME business sector, critical to Ireland's prosperity, there remains work to do. Here, utilisation of fibre connectivity is essential, but underwhelming.
SMEs employ almost 70 per cent of our workforce. They matter hugely to our economy. More than 370,000 Irish businesses use broadband, but only 10 per cent use full fibre.
A recent National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) report, inadvertently, exposed Ireland's business connectivity challenge. Noting the need for improved SME and public sector productivity, particularly as Ireland's FDI bonanza faces headwinds, the report calls for greater investment in digitisation and advanced technologies, including AI.
AI is only as powerful as the broadband network supporting it.
AI's future depends on fibre networks capable of supporting trillions of transactions, cloud-based learning models, and the integration of AI across strategic industries like healthcare, manufacturing or agriculture.
The NCPC Report does not mention broadband, at all.
SMEs challenged over the past decade by Covid, supply chain issues, inflation or skill shortages can be forgiven for not prioritising connectivity, but policymakers can convince them of its importance.
We need greater ambition.
Set both a national target, and timeline, for fibre take-up and put in place policy levers to achieve that goal. In parallel, provide a date for Ireland's copper broadband network to be switched off. The European Commission has proposed 2030.
Ireland recently submitted to the European Commission:
'
Ireland believes that this should be left up to the operators to decide'.
A representative of the operator responsible for switching off Ireland's copper network, worryingly, suggested it would be beyond 2030 before it even started.
A telecoms operator dictating the pace of technological adaptation, has not previously served Ireland's interests well.
The UK will switch off copper in January 2027, Spain recently completed their switch off, France and Scandinavian countries are well on the way to doing so. Importantly, in all, there have been safeguards for vulnerable customers.
Incentivising SMEs to switch off copper merits consideration. SMEs can already avail of digital grants to upgrade websites, train staff or build eCommerce platforms, but not to install fibre broadband, why not?
If we are serious about elevating the digital capability and productivity of Ireland's domestic economy, our SMEs need a high standard of connectivity to do so.
The good news for business is, unlike other essential infrastructure, they don't have to wait for it. For many, it's already outside their door.
John Keaney is chief executive of Siro
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Tusla expects to be €68m over budget this year as demand for services rises
Tusla has warned it will breach its budget by nearly €68 million this year as it struggles to deal with huge demand for its services. The child and family agency warned in an update in May that it had already overspent by €8.9 million but this figure was likely to rise by the end of the year. Tusla said its expected overspend for 2025 was €67.8 million, which included €7.6 million for children in the international protection process and refugees from Ukraine. In a monthly briefing, the agency said demand for its services was growing, especially for residential care, fostering, legal bills, and caring for separated children seeking asylum . It said it is trying to cut costs by expanding residential provision to replace special emergency arrangements that were a 'significant cost driver.' Tusla said some savings had been made in this area in 2024 through a 'strict pricing arrangement' and that this would continue this year. However, the agency warned that costs remained 'unpredictable' due to the inflated cost of placements. [ Girl (16) 'exchanging sex for money' among three children for whom no secure beds available Opens in new window ] 'As the majority of Tusla's expenditure is on demand-led arrangements, it is not possible to reduce expenditure materially to meet the budget allocated without adversely impacting on services for vulnerable children and families,' the report said. It said there was likely to be an overspend of €38.8 million on placements for special care, fostering, and private residential arrangements. Tusla also detailed the high cost of 'out-of-state placements' which involves a small number of children brought to the United Kingdom when services are not available in Ireland. The briefing said: 'If the agency cannot place children into special care in the existing facilities in 2025, this has the potential to impact on this year's overspend.' It said costs for staff travel were also likely to be up by as much as €2.2 million despite curbs on expenses being introduced. [ Person pretending to be Tusla worker turned up at children's residential unit on night shift Opens in new window ] Tusla also detailed a sharp rise in the number of placements for separated children who had applied for international protection in Ireland. The overspend was predicted to be about €6.1 million on providing 343 residential placements for vulnerable asylum seekers without parents. Other areas of concern for Tusla were Guardian ad Litem (GAL) arrangements under which a person was appointed to represent the interests of a child in court. 'There is continued increased usage of GALs by the court and this also has an increased legal cost,' the document said. The child and family agency also predicted an overspend for child refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, according to records released under Freedom of Information. Asked about the budget difficulties, a Tusla spokesman said: 'Throughout 2025, the agency has experienced unprecedented demand for services, which was unpredictable in nature, and we have worked to prioritise cost-saving initiatives around these contributing factors. 'Tusla has strong budget controls in place, however the projected overspend for 2025 is the result of demand-led pressures in the agency for the accommodation of children in the care of the State as well as costs for accommodating unaccompanied minors and associated legal and Guardian ad Litem costs.'
Irish Independent
5 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Sligo online player scoops over one million euro in EuroMillions draw
The winning normal play ticket was bought on 19th July. The winning raffle ticket number was: I-SLF-56168. The National Lottery has confirmed that a notification and an email has been sent to the Sligo online player. The winner is advised to make contact with the National Lottery prize claims team on 1800 666 222 or email claims@ to arrange the collection of the prize. Friday night's EuroMillions draw featured an extra special 'Ireland Only' Raffle event, with a guaranteed €1,005,000 prize for one player. As with every EuroMillions draw, ten players win €5,000 with their unique raffle ticket number, and among them one fortunate winner from Sligo has had an additional €1,000,000 added to their prize, making them the 16th National Lottery millionaire of the 2025 with a total prize worth €1,005,000. While there was no winner of the EuroMillions jackpot worth €166,241,768, in total over 67,000 players won prizes in the EuroMillions & EuroMillions Plus draws, including the online player in Sligo who won the EuroMillions Ireland Only Raffle prize of €1,005,000. Darragh O'Dwyer, spokesperson for The National Lottery, said: 'What a night for our players! We've got a brand-new millionaire in Sligo thanks to the Ireland Only Raffle. That's €1.5 million in top tier prizes heading to two counties in one night. We're absolutely thrilled and can't wait to meet our latest winners including Ireland's newest millionaire.'
RTÉ News
11 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Is AI making our brains lazy?
Have you ever googled something but couldn't remember the answer a short time later? Well, you're probably not alone. Multiple studies have shown that "digital amnesia" or the "Google effect" is a consequence of having information readily available at our fingertips. It happens because we don't commit the information to memory in the knowledge that we can easily look it up again. According to The Decision Lab, this bias exists not only for things we look up on internet search engines but for most information that is easily accessible on our computers or phones. For example, most of us can't remember friends, family members or work colleagues' phone numbers by heart. So how can we help our brains to remember information? "Writing is thinking," said Professor Barry O'Sullivan from the School of Computer Science & IT at UCC. Professor O'Sullivan believes there are learning benefits associated with Large Language Models (LLMs), but his view is that we should be applying a precautionary principle to them as its such early days. "If you're not the one doing the writing then you're not the one doing the thinking, so if you're a student or you're the employee, the writing really does need to be yours," he said. LLMs with chatbots or virtual assistant chatbots such as Gemini or ChatGPT, have been trained on enormous amounts of text and data and their systems are capable of understanding and generating human language. With these rapid advances in AI certain tasks are now easier, and when used effectively can save time and money, in our personal and working lives. However, there are concerns about critical thinking, creativity and problem solving. Some AI companies claim their models are capable of genuine reasoning, but there's ongoing debate over whether their "chain of thought" or "reasoning" is trustworthy. According to Professor Barry O'Sullivan, these claims "just aren't true." "These large language models don't reason the same way as human beings," he said. "They have pretty weak abilities to reason mathematically, to reason logically, so it really is the big stepping stone, but it's always been the big stepping stone in AI." he added. He cautions people and workers to use these tools as an assistant, and as a sometimes "unreliable assistant". Professor O'Sullivan also warns AI generated answers could contain a biased view of the world, that is when human brain power is needed to apply sense, reasoning and logic to the data. The Google Search Engine was launched in 1998 and is considered a narrow form of AI. Since then, there have been many studies highlighting how the "Google Effect" is a real phenomenon and its impact on how we remember and learn. Launches such as Open AI's chatbot ChatGPT, and more recently Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode search are all relatively new, meaning there has been less time to study the effects. A new study by researchers at the media lab at Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT) "Your Brain on ChatGPT", divided 54 people aged 18 to 39 into three groups to write essays. One group used Open AI's ChatGPT, one used Google's Search Engine, and the remaining group used no tools; they had to rely purely on brain power. While it was a very small study and in a very specific location (Boston), it found that of the three groups, ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement. While in the brain-only group, researchers found they were more engaged and curious, and claimed ownership and expressed higher satisfaction with their essays. The study suggests the use of LLMs, such as ChatGPT which is what they used but is similar to other LLMs, could actually harm learning, especially for younger users. "The MIT study is one source, but there isn't any definitive evidence of that, however the growing amount of evidence does seem to be tipping on that side of the argument that the more we rely on very sophisticated reasoning systems that can automate the process of writing, the less we are thinking," said Professor O'Sullivan. "People should remember that writing is thinking, so when you when you give up the writing to somebody else, you're not thinking anymore and that does have a consequence." Is digital dependence shaping our brains? Whether in education or in the workplace, the use of AI is becoming increasingly prevalent. In a nutshell it does appear to be shaping our brains, but the debate continues over whether it's happening in a negative or a positive way. As a professor in UCC, Mr O'Sullivan ponders over whether table quizzes are as popular as they used to be, and how young people view need-to-know information. "You often hear students saying, "Well I don't really need to know that because if I was out on the job I'd Google it, and wouldn't that be just fine?" "It is to some extent fine for some pieces of information, but it's also important to know why the information is that way, or what the origin is, or why things are that way," Professor O'Sullivan said. There is a skill shift happening with how we and our brains engage with new technology. This is why human judgement and decision making is more important than ever according to Claire Cogan, behavioural scientist and founder of Behaviour Wise. "There is an effect (from AI) on how the brain learns, so there's an impact on brain health. Some of that is relevant to employers, and its very relevant to individuals," said Ms Cogan. AI is useful in the workplace when it can automate mundane or time-consuming tasks such as generating content and extracting key points from large amounts of data. Ms Cogan noted the theory is when people talk about the pluses and minuses, AI should free up time to allow people to do other things. "So as long as that balance is there, it's a good thing. If that balance isn't there, then it's simply going to have a negative impact," she stated. Referring to the MIT study, she assessed it found evidence that using AI can slow attention and have an impact on the working memory. "The brain will go for shortcuts, if there's an easier way to get to something, that's the way the brain will choose," said Ms Cogan. "However, there are still areas where human intelligence far outweighs anything AI can do, particularly around judgment and decision making, and they're going to become more and more important," she stated. "That's the side driven by people, so there's a whole new skill where people are going to have to learn how to judge when to use AI, how to use it, how to direct it, and how to manage it," she said. Does reliance on AI impact on critical thinking in the workplace? Since the late 90s people have been using search engines to find facts. With the advances and sophistication of AI people are becoming more wary, with real concerns about misinformation, disinformation and deep fakes. So while we are relying on AI tools to help find information, it's more important than ever that we engage core human skills in terms of decision making. Ms Cogan believes in an ideal world teachers and lecturers would be almost preparing people for what is going to happen in five or more years. "It's a particular skill to know when and when not to use AI, just teaching the value in decision making because ultimately the overall goal or the aim is defined by the person. There is a skill to making a good decision, and in a work context to know how to arrive at the best decision, that in itself is a whole topic in behavioural science," she said. What's next for our brains? "For our own sake, we need to nurture our brains and we need to look after our brain health," said Ms Cogan. "The best way we can do that is by remaining actively involved in that whole learning process," she said. The authors of the MIT study urged media to avoid certain vocabulary when talking about the paper and impact of generative AI on the brain. These terms included "brain scans", "LLMs make you stop thinking", "impact negatively", "brain damage" and "terrifying findings". It is very early days when it comes to learning about how these technological advances will impact on us in the long term. Maybe in the near future, AI will be able to summarise and analyse data from upcoming studies to tell us if it is rewiring our brains or making them lazy.
