Ireland

[IE] Results of Consultation on Future of Internet

IRIS 2002-4:1/21

Tarlach McGonagle

Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam

The Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR) recently published the results of a consultation exercise which it initiated in July 2001 on the future development of the Internet in Ireland.

Since its creation in 1997, the ODTR's primary task has been to act as the Irish National Regulatory Authority (NRA) for the telecommunications sector. As such, the main focus of the consultation exercise was its own responsibility for the regulation of the communications networks underpinning the Internet.

The two most substantive sections of the document deal with the current state of the Internet in Ireland on the one hand, and likely future developments on the other. The first includes issues such as the leased line market, local loop unbundling, dial-up access, Internet Service Provider (ISP) payment for Internet services, as well as interconnection issues. The second, for its part, treats Internet developments, barriers to development, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) congestion, flat-rate interconnection (dial-up market), Internet Protocol-based networks and new access mechanisms and models. Thirteen responses to the original consultation document (Doc. No. 01/47) were received by the ODTR and these reflect a variety of interests and preoccupations.

It is expected that the responses to this consultation exercise will exert considerable influence on the formulation of the ODTR's future Internet-related policies. They will also help to fill in a broader, emerging picture created by the responses to other consultation exercises on germane topics (the allocation of additional access codes and number ranges for dial-up Internet access (concluded); leased lines and wireless local loop (both forthcoming)).