The Republic remains a laggard in terms of the adoption of broadband internet and has been ranked behind Peru, Macao and Slovenia in an influential global survey on the technology.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ranked the Republic just 51st out of 73 states in terms of the uptake of broadband, a technology that enables people to connect to the internet at very high speeds.
The ITU's Birth of Broadband report says less than 1 per cent of inhabitants in the State has subscribed to a broadband service, compared to 21 per cent in Korea, which has the highest global rate of broadband penetration.
The Republic was ranked below every other EU member-state except Greece in the broadband penetration survey, which was compiled with figures relating to 2002.
The results, although not surprising given the State's poor record on broadband in recent years, will disappoint the Government and industry players, who yesterday set up separate initiatives to promote the service.
The Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, said yesterday that the poor figures reflected a historical position that had a lot to do with the selling of the incumbent telecoms firm, Eircom. It was only in recent times that Eircom had started to introduce a broadband programme, he added.
He said he would shortly bring a new package of measures to Cabinet designed to promote broadband in the Republic.
He confirmed the Government was considering investing money in telecoms infrastructure, which could be channelled through local authorities and managed by an independent telecoms entity.
Meanwhile, Esat BT yesterday matched price cuts announced by Eircom earlier this week for its IOL broadband service.
The ITU survey had also found that broadband prices here were ranked 22nd out of 61 countries when measured as a percentage of monthly income. Japan, Korea and Belgium are all ranked as the cheapest for broadband when compared to the wages of its citizens. Broadband costs in Australia and Iceland are roughly equivalent to the Republic's, while people in Denmark and Finland spend more on broadband in proportion to monthly wages.
Eircom said it would spend €3 million over six months promoting its i-stream service in an attempt to boost the number of subscribers to 100,000 in 2004.
Currently, it is estimated that there are slightly more than 10,000 broadband subscribers in the Republic.
