If anyone still imagines that the need for better broadband access is not yet fully understood by government policymakers then yesterday’s announcement by Northern Ireland’s Department for Enterprise Trade and Investment should give pause for thought.

The £1.1m contract awarded to Avanti Communications to deliver Internet Access to some of the country’s more remote communities and businesses also reflects the government’s clear recognition that broadband coverage has become a key factor in attracting inward investment.

Announcing the new contract, Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster, stressed the increasing value of broadband in delivering economic, social and educational benefits and highlighted the need to properly serve ‘an economy with a high reliance on small businesses, many of them home-based and rurally located.’ 

For citizens and businesses in those areas where the last generation copper network is simply unable to provide even a basic broadband service, Avanti will now provide an infrastructure utilising satellite connectivity until such time as Next Generation ‘Open Access’ fibre-to-the home can be deployed to bring NI up towards the current provision standards of advanced countries such as Sweden.

With Northern Ireland’s commitment to deployment of Connected Health systems and services it is abundantly clear to policy-makers that the current digital and societal divides must not be allowed to deepen.  

Internet-enabled services help to alleviate the economic and social challenges faced by more-remote communities.  However, the relatively high infrastructure cost in rural areas deters investors driven by conventional market mechanisms that are supposed to thrive in an openly competitive environment.  The extent of market failure is indicated by the fact that across the whole of Northern Ireland BT has lost its monopoly (SMP) position in only two telephone exchanges.

Avanti’s entry into the NI market also signals the intriguing prospect of servicing the needs of large corporate organisations in the Financial Services and Media sectors – particularly where they require assured business continuity services to protect against unexpected failures of terrestrial networks. 

Yesterday’s announcement, following on from news earlier this week of a more-direct high-capacity route to the USA (and avoiding over-dependence on traditional routes via London) signals a further step towards Northern Ireland’s recovery from the legacy of last generation access networks and under-investment in critical infrastructure.

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See also European Connected Health Campus