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WHILE THE ROLLOUT of high-speed broadband in the country is still slow, the speeds offered here are some of the fastest in the world.
A new report from Akamai called State of the Internet for Q4 2014 found that speeds in the country are now at an average of 13.9 Mbps, an increase of 47% compared to the same period last year.
This places it seventh in the world ranking and fourth in Europe, meaning it has speeds faster than that in the UK, Germany and Norway.
The fastest broadband speeds are in South Korea which has an average of 25.3 Mbps. Hong Kong came second with 16.3 Mbps while Japan came third with 15 Mbps. In Europe, the three countries that have faster speeds than Ireland were Switzerland (4th with 14.5 Mbps) Sweden (5th with 14.1 Mbps) and Netherlands (6th with 14 Mbps).
While service providers like UPC, Sky and Eircom have recently introduced speed increases, the access to broadband in rural areas is still far behind its urban counterparts.
Back in November, the Communications Minister Alex White released a national broadband plan for rural Ireland which aims to connect an estimated 700,000 homes and businesses by 2020.
At the time, the government said it didn’t expect to start the network’s “physical build” until late 2016.
While Ireland had one of the highest yearly growth rates worldwide, the report stated the only 18% had speeds above 15 Mbps. 35% of the population had speeds above 10 Mbps while 69% had speeds above 4 Mbps.
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Interesting little read, thanks Journal.
It appears that many make a living out of bringing up debris from great depths.
I don’t agree with this .
A sheer commercial entity.
There are companies that salvage valuble cargos from cargo vessels such as valuble metals & make a good living from it. In my view its just recycling & does not invade the final resting place of some poor souls lost at sea. I think myself taking little personal items from a ship like the titanic is only about fueling our curiosities & as such is grave robbing. I dont mind observing the wreck of the titanic & understanding what happened. However removing valuable commercial cargos that can be used again & may even help clean up the seabed a little should continue & be encouraged
Grave robbing!!
Or marine archaeology !! How much has been made off of Egyptian artifacts etc
What good is it doing at the bottom of the sea? While the ship’s hull makes for a good reef for marine life, I doubt they need jewelery!
Also, I don’t consider it grave robbing because those “graves” were NOT put there on purpose. unlike the egyptian tombs.
Excellent article.
I’m gonna assemble a crew as soon as I’ve raised the 200,000.
i agree. auctions of titanic wreckage items is no different than what Egyptian archaeologists have done to sell items to museums from their digging expeditions. its a double standard if one agrees with Egyptian archaeologists “grave robbing” and not with titanic maritime recovery missions.
hmm easy way to make fast cash
I would want part of who I was to be remebered. I would hope that with every piece that comes up that we become closer to the lives that didn’t survive. Its not grave robbing at all. Its simpling remembering who we are as people. And trust me ladies with nice jewelry don’t want it rotting at the bottom of the ocean.
have your say