Government policy needs to be radically overhauled over the next four months to establish a competitive environment for electronic commerce in Ireland, the chairman of the telecommunications advisory committee established by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said yesterday.
In advance of telecommunications deregulation on December 1st, ground rules need to be laid down that create a "win-win" situation for Telecom Eireann and new entrants to the market, according to Mr Brian Thompson. Speaking following the committee's first meeting yesterday, Mr Thompson said: "We are trying to convey to Government, from a private sector and foreign perspective, the ways to avoid the mistakes made in the past in other countries. The people on this committee would strongly support a private-sector approach to telecommunications development and we believe market forces should drive any necessary change."
Over four hours, senior representatives from multinational telecommunications companies, interest groups and Government met to begin formulating a strategy aimed at placing Ireland at the centre of global telecommunications development.
As each member of the committee attends in a personal capacity, the telecommunications companies represented will not be precluded from tendering for licences here post-deregulation.
The committee, set up last month, features Mr Vinton Cerf, senior vice-president of telecoms giant MCI and commonly referred to as the "father of the Internet". Future meetings will focus on encouraging government to ensure any competitors entering the market will be given a fair chance to compete. Mr Thompson said this may involve an "asymmetric regulatory approach" under which the Government introduced policies to favour the newcomers. These could include: tax incentives for investment here; the opening up of access to Telecom Eireann lines on the basis the technology is obsolete and needs upgrading; and lower pricing so competitors could take advantage of the existing network. Any barriers and regulations that discourage competition would need to be removed.
Mr Thompson added that Ireland needed to create a climate for financing the type of risk that went with electronic commerce.
"Venture capital doesn't exist here in any kind of proportional form to that necessary for crucial development of new businesses. There should be facilities in place to finance growth without turning to risk-averse banking systems."
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, met the group at Government buildings yesterday morning, and Ms O'Rourke attended the entire afternoon session. The committee will meet again today with the aim of drawing up a number of issues and objectives to be explored and revised at each of the committee's next three meetings scheduled for September, October and November.
Other key members of the group include: Mr Ray Smith, chairman of Bell Atlantic; Mr Don Heath, president and chief executive officer of the Internet society; and Mr Denis Gilhooley, consultant to Teledesic, the satellite specialists.
