so Bertie would be counting me thrice.

I’m once, twice, three times a googler.

You won’t get broadband everywhere so the 100 per cent goal is misguided. Even developed countries like the US have great black spots for broadband. When I travel to the US on holidays, I hope to find those black spots so I can truly escape. And some people want that escape in backwater weekend accommodation in Ireland so why push broadband services into those areas? Why not decide on broadband centres, service those centres and let people know that if they opt to live remotely, they may get postcards instead of email.

With that kind of focus you could get poor copper replaced in city centres, you could spotlight dark fibre between large towns and you could get faster consensus from business leaders without getting wrapped up in changing government schemes.

By the way, I consistently get strong broadband signals–a megabit a second downstream and often the same upstream–from O2-Ireland. I’ve tested faster speeds on O2 (faster than three megabits per second) so I would be slow to criticise the wireless providers’ capabilities inside built-up areas in many parts of Ireland.

I’m curious what you think of this:
http://www.sarahcarey.ie/2008/02/11/how-to-solve-our-broadband-fiasco/#comment-214774

‘The [Sustainable Energy Ireland] Pellet Boiler Grant Scheme ran over budget by 16.5 Million so Eamo robbed the 10 Million allocated to the National Broadband Scheme to make up the shortfall, as the National Broadband Scheme assesment process was proving more complicated than originally anticipated and the funds would not be spent’

do you know, is this true? did the govt take from Broadband funding to shore up SEI? that’s pretty shocking behaviour, too, IMO.

Damien, I am interested in your comment about the OECD and MBB. Where did that come from?