Europe - United Kingdom and Ireland Market Analysis 2003

Synopsis

The United Kingdom and Ireland represent two of the major ICT user countries in Europe. Although the UK market is roughly ten times the size of the Irish market, it is ahead of its near neighbour in most indicators of ICT usage. Irelands’ recent economic miracle as the “Celtic Tiger” with strong levels of IT-heavy inward investment and ICT manufacturing combining with a positive government influence on the information economy might create an expectation that Ireland would be a leader. In fact, although the Irish market is a prosperous one, its adoption of broadband and other advanced services is clearly behind the UK and comparable economies such as Scandinavia or the Netherlands– creating an interesting example of the role of competition in driving innovation and growth. This report provides an overview of the telecommunications and broadcasting markets in Ireland and the UK; covering fixed line telephony, broadband, mobile communications, and satellite, cable and digital TV.