RDS says internet connectivity ‘boosted’ for Web Summit

The RDS has said internet connectivity at the venue has been significantly boosted ahead of this year's Dublin Web Summit.

Issues with internet access were one of the matters raised by event organiser Paddy Cosgrave in correspondence with the Department of the Taoiseach ahead of a decision to move the event to Lisbon in Portugal next year. The summit takes place next week.

In a statement, the RDS said the roll-out of "superfast Vodafone 4G across the campus" had been completed "ahead of schedule to facilitate the Web Summit event next week".

In addition, it said the Web Summit organisers had “taken exclusive responsibility for the build, operation and performance of the wifi network at their event”.

“In recent years the RDS has invested €3 million in our ICT infrastructure putting us in the top tier of connectivity for venues in Europe, rivalling event centres many times our size,” the statement added.

In his correspondence with the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Cosgrave had accused the RDS of “blocking a simple wifi solution” .

“They need to understand that putting up barriers that increase the cost to over €1 million this coming year, when it’s free and reliable in other cities, just adds significantly to the pressures forcing us out of Dublin.”

Last year, Mr Cosgrave had to apologise to attendees at the technology conference for issues with the wifi connection at the RDS. He took to the centre stage twice on the first day of the event to apologise for connectivity issues being experienced, saying the Web Summit had paid the RDS €400,000 for wifi.

Mr Cosgrave has also expressed concern over traffic management at the venue and steep hotel prices in the city at the time of the event.

More than 20,000 people are expected to attend this year’s Web Summit which gets underway at the RDS on Tuesday.