Sir, - I fully endorse Paul Stokes's letter of April 9th, dismantling the notion that we have anything like decent Internet access in Ireland. Eircom, NTL, MCI, Chorus and Esat all seem to have faltered in this regard. A solitary note of determination seems to be the ESB's stated intention to develop a State-wide backbone with or without a partner.
A low-cost, preferably "always on" Internet access would allow a paradigm shift in the way we work . The ability to be able to work from home or the office will cut down on pointless commuting time, traffic congestion and pollution, and over time would blur distinctions such as rural and urban, business and householder.
This is too important to be left only to business. The government will have to continue to try and create the environment in which such evolution will occur briskly. Once the loop is unbundled we need a Ryanair of telecoms to drive the process forward so that the resulting services are low-cost but profitable. - Yours, etc.,
Tony Dolan, Milesian Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin.