Quality telecommunications infrastructure and service are as crucial to regional development today as rural electrification was in the 1940s and 1950s, the Western Development Commission says in its report.
Swedish businessman Mr Stephan Wik would agree. Having been tempted to locate his Internet services company in the west of Ireland, he would think twice about advising others to do likewise.
"I was naïve. I believed what politicians and agencies like the IDA told me," Mr Wik told The Irish Times. In 1997 he set up his company, Anu Internet Technologies, in Westport, Co Mayo, employing eight people at peak in 1999. However, last September he was forced to relocate to Galway because the cost of telecommunications connections in Mayo was so high. He has moved his development section to the US and Britain.
His company was paying €33,000 a year for its telecommunications connection in Westport, but is linked to a connection with twice the capacity for €23,000 in Galway. In other words, he was paying 30 per cent extra in Mayo for half the speed and capacity.
The WDC report notes that there is some degree of competition between Eircom and Esat BT in the Galway market, but in Westport there is only one provider. The "backhaul" distance from Galway to Dublin (as in connections between exchanges) and onwards to international connections is less than that from Westport to Dublin.
Apart from the different costs within Ireland, telecoms costs are considerably higher here than abroad. In the US, Anu Internet Technologies can buy the same amount of bandwidth for €4,900 a year, having paid €33,000 a year in Westport.
"I have received not one penny of State aid during my time in Ireland, but I was attracted by quality-of-life factors," Mr Wik said. "The problem is that none of the promises have been delivered upon, because the west is not seen as a priority."
