Characterising high-speed broadband availability across Ireland

This Bulletin summarises the findings from Dempsey, S., and Hoy, A. (2024). Exacerbating the divide? Investigating within-rural inequality of high-speed broadband availability. Telecommunications Policy Available https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2024.102819. 

This research was supported by the Electronic Communications Research Programme at the ESRI, funded as joint research programme by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) and the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg).

Introduction

The importance and benefits of reliable and fast broadband in a post-Covid world are increasingly clear. However, while the urban-rural digital gap is globally observed, less is known about potential digital divides within rural or urban areas. Documenting this is important for understanding the equity implications of telecommunication policy given the ongoing and significant public investment into high-speed broadband infrastructure (National Broadband Plan). This research contributes to this discussion by describing Irish high-speed broadband availability in Q2 2022 across different urban/rural areas characterised as more or less socially deprived.  

Data and methods

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) map categorises areas as belonging to Excluded Areas (where commercial operators are operating) and Intervention Areas (where state intervention is required to install high speed broadband). This research used very small geographical regions known as Small Areas and calculated the proportion of land which had high-speed broadband using Q2 2022 NBP maps. Employing new maps of urban boundaries, the research first documented the urban-rural digital divide within Ireland. Next, area-based indicators of social deprivation (Pobal HP Deprivation Index) informed by the Census 2022, were used to describe how high-speed coverage varied across rural areas. This indicator of social deprivation encompasses a wide range of social inclusion metrics such as educational attainment, employment status and the age-dependency ratio. 

Results

This study observed that in Q2 2022, high speed broadband coverage in Ireland varied significantly. Urban areas had near-universal high-speed broadband coverage (≥ 94%). Previous research from the European Commission has estimated rural coverage to stand at 54% by the end of June 2022. Our research estimated a lower level (44% of rural addresses) as we employed a different definition of rural areas which tended to capture more isolated regions. Given the almost ubiquitous presence of high-speed broadband in urban areas the results of this study encouragingly showed that in 2022, urban social deprivation patterns were not associated with urban high-speed broadband availability. On the other hand, in rural areas, greater affluence was associated with increased high speed broadband availability. Average coverage was approximately 42% in socially disadvantaged rural areas, compared to 50% in the most affluent rural areas. Documenting this relationship helps to provide insight as to the extent to which the National Broadband Plan can be considered a progressive telecommunication policy within rural areas and adds greater nuance to the debate regarding the importance of universal broadband availability.

Conclusions

As the end of 2024 approaches, the continued rollout of the National Broadband Plan will likely help to not only remedy digital divides between urban and rural areas, but also those between rural areas characterised by different levels of social deprivation. An important methodological conclusion of the research relates to how coverage across the population is calculated. For example, coverage can be calculated as the percentage of geographical area which is covered by high-speed broadband. This research showed that this approach significantly underestimated coverage levels as it did not take into consideration the geographical dispersion of households. Alternatively, coverage can be calculated as the percentage of households in an area which are located in high-speed broadband zones. This approach tended to more accurately capture observed coverage across the population. Importantly the NBP map captures broadband availability across Ireland using the second type of coverage measure. Future policy targeting availability with respect to other social inclusion metrics should thus continue to capture high speed broadband availability using this approach.