The Government will reactivate its panel of international telecommunications experts to produce a second report on the Republic's telecoms infrastructure.
The voluntary Advisory Committee on Telecommunications will again be chaired by Mr Brian Thompson, former vicechairman of telecoms conglomerate Qwest, who briefly became chairman of Telecom Eireann just prior to the flotation of the former State telecoms company.
Mr Thompson resigned his position at Telecom Eireann when it was seen as conflicting with a concurrent role as chairman and chief executive of Global TeleSystems.
He has recently resigned from that position as well after a corporate reshuffle. He agreed to resume his chairmanship of the committee following a request from the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke.
According to a Department spokesman, Ms O'Rourke also hopes that another notable figure, MCI vice-president and Internet pioneer Mr Vint Cerf, will return to the committee. The original committee produced a report that resulted directly in multi-million pound investments by Government in developing fibre optic and wireless networks, encouraging the growth of e-business, increasing funding for research, and supporting community development initiatives.
The report included 10 broad recommendations for the restructuring of the State's telecommunications infrastructure. Ranging from strong endorsement of a public-private partnership initiative to bring in a global broadband Internet and telecommunications company to suggestions on improving the climate for venture capital investments, the report became a central plank of Government policy for developing an infrastructure favourable to e-business.
The flagship project resulting from the report was the Government's £12 million (€15 million) investment in a public-private partnership with telecommunications company Global Crossing, which connected Ireland directly to the US and European Internet "backbones" by an undersea fibre optic cable. The Government bought half the cable's capacity and sold it at a steep discount to encourage the growth of e-business.
The report also influenced spending of £150 million for broadband development in the regions, £2.5 million in community technology-oriented projects, a £1.95 billion allocation to research and education, and the State's e-commerce bill on electronic signatures and encryption, regarded as model legislation internationally.
The original committee first met in July 1998. After three intensive meetings, during which it heard presentations from industry, business and community representatives, it published the report in November 1998.
The new committee is expected to bring in fresh expertise in areas of particular interest to the Government, including wireless broadband infrastructure, ebusiness and research. The spokesman said potential members were being approached and that the group would hold its first meeting before the end of January. A second report was expected by April or early May.
It will evaluate how well Government has implemented the recommendations in the first report and consider what should be done next.
