[29.12.2006 first posted on silicon republic]
2006 was a watershed year for Ireland’s ICT sector with significant job, business, infrastructure and R&D gains.

September
Intel workers breathed a sigh of relief during September when the company’s 5,500-strong Irish workforce escaped the global jobs cull that saw 10,500 employees let go.
Dell and Cartrawler.ie created 80 and 65 jobs respectively; Smart Telecom was not so lucky. Within a few weeks it had seen its workforce fall from 348 to 100, its founder and chief executive step down and 45,000 of its telecoms and broadband customers cut off by Eircom over a €4m unpaid debt. Major shareholder Brendan Murtagh acquired the company and its liabilities, estimated to be about €40m, for €1. To cap off a horrible year for Smart, it failed in its High Court bid to get its 3G licence reinstated by ComReg.
Cable & Wireless had a better year, announcing a multi-million expansion of its existing network in September, which will see the company’s customers move towards pure IP communications. The investment was made possible through the sale and leaseback of the company’s Tallaght site.
Irish Broadband completed a €13m expansion of its network that saw its geographic reach double.
To counteract the growing threat from internet fraud, a high-tech crime forum featuring Irish financial institutions, the gardaí and other stakeholders had its first meeting this month. In light of recent cases where Irish banks were hit, phishing was very much on the agenda.
Irish firm Daon was a hit down under with the Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, winning a €30m deal to provide biometric technology.
The managing director of System Dynamics Tony Maguire claimed a change of attitude was needed in government circles when it came to buying IT services, claiming that nine times out of 10 the public sector purchases ‘reassuringly expensive’ IT services from big-brand consumers and ignores indigenous SMEs.
Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) launched a High Court action against the Government challenging new laws it claims usher in mass surveillance. The group is challenging the law on data retention by internet service providers and telcos contained in the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act, 2005 and the European Data Retention Directive passed in 2006.
Digiweb completed a €20m funding round that will be used to extend the company’s existing broadband network as well as building another based on 4G mobile technology.
ComReg expanded its Callcosts.ie website to include comparisons of broadband packages available in the Irish market. Within two weeks Eircom had announced price cuts in its broadband package of up to 25pc, although siliconrepublic.com was assured the timing was pure coincidence.
Former chief technology officer of BT and futurist Peter Cochrane warned that broadband spells the demise of traditional telcos. “The first thing people with real broadband do is sign up for Skype,” he declared.
October
The rise of social networking as a phenomenon was illustrated when Google beat Microsoft and News Corp to the punch by buying video clip and social networking site YouTube for US$1.65bn.
3 announced it is to invest in 28 new stores around the country, which will employ 200 people by 2007.
Kaspersky Labs said it has taken just two years for mobile malware to reach a stage of evolution that PC malware like viruses and Trojan Horses took 20 years to arrive at. About 10 Trojans written for Symbian mobile operating systems are added to its antivirus database every week.
Digiweb announced it was on course to complete rollout of its Metro service to 26 towns by November and said a rollout to a further 30 towns would commence in January.
The Government met the October deadline for the rollout of e-passports that have secure electronic chips that store an encrypted digital version of the holder’s identity. DRI claimed the lack of any shielding in the passports means “skimmers” will be able to detect the passports from picking up their frequencies, and even identify nationality, without the holder knowing.
Irish bloggers escaped the phosphorescent glow of their computer screens for a few hours this month to contribute to a Blogging the Election event.. The event, organised by uber-bloggers Mick Fealty, Suzy O’Byrne and Damian Mulley, aimed to highlight how bloggers can play a part in energising the next general election.
Irish companies’ customer service ethic was lashed when a survey of 125 firms found that 44pc failed to respond to queries customers emailed in.
Call firm Swiftcall was the subject of a management buyout led by its CEO and chief technology officer. The company intends to tackle the broadband market in 2007.
A conference on e-marketing held by Tourism Ireland heard that the sector must embrace the internet as a tool if it wishes to compete internationally because search engines, blogs and social networking sites have revolutionised how people decide where to go and how they organise their trips.
A report published by the NCTE found that 29pc of computers in primary schools and 19pc of computers in secondary schools are over six years old; 10,000 of computers in primary schools are in need of repair and 5,500 are beyond repair.
The Irish Recorded Music Association asked the courts to order internet service providers to release names of 10 music file sharers who it claims are abusing copyright on the internet. The organisation announced legal action against the file sharers who use peer-to-peer sites to upload music on to the web.
November
On the same day it announced it would invest €500m in its network BT suggested that failure to act on local loop unbundling could impair the investment. BT’s Irish operations experienced a 17pc increase in revenues for the first half of the year.
ComReg gave its strongest indication that it may sanction incumbent Eircom over lack of progress in resolving the LLU issue. The regulator said it had given “more than sufficient time and support” to enable outstanding matters to be resolved commercially and is considering what further interventions may be needed to move the process forward. These ongoing issues include a continued low level of fault repairs, “significant problems” in order provisioning and limitations on the ability to migrate from one service provider to another.
Eircom launched a €1bn upgrade of its network which will include rolling out fibre-to-the-kerb infrastructure which should carry 5Mbps broadband.
Mobile operator 3 declared it would introduce 3.6Mbps mobile broadband across its customer base in the first quarter of 2007. It will be priced like fixed-line broadband.
An Garda Síochána and the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service were told they were getting a new €18m electronic fingerprint system to be used on asylum seekers and non-EEA nationals by the Tánaiste and Justice Minister Michael McDowell TD.
Novell and Microsoft ended the Cold War around proprietary and open-source software when the two companies agreed to make the Windows and Linux operating systems work together.
Digiweb announced it would invest in a 140km fibre network in Dublin.
Cisco revealed it is to set up an R&D facility in Galway with a view to employing 200 people over three years.
Google launched its own Office-type product to rival Microsoft, merging Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets to create a new package called Writely.. The search engine company moved into a second building on Barrow Street and began recruitment to fill 500 new vacancies. It also downplayed the extent of click fraud on the internet.
The Government committed €289m to science and research programmes to be overseen by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in 2007. Venture capital for tech firms may be less forthcoming: PricewaterhouseCoopers said it was concerned about the ability of VC funds to raise new cash with many approaching the end of their current cycle.
Concern over social networking sites continued as it was claimed by to Trinity College Dublin PhD scholars that one in three publicly viewable Bebo pages belong to under-18s, raising fears that paedophiles could use this information.
Digital River, a US-headquartered e-commerce firm, confirmed it would create 350 jobs when it sets up shop in the Shannon region.
A Dublin primary school has shown a good example of how digital technology can be used in education by adopting a digital curriculum, whereby teachers are kitted out with laptops and every classroom has a digital projector connected to wired and wireless networks. The pupils in St Joseph’s Boys National School in Terenure send homework to their teacher by email and each classroom has its own email address.
Liberty Global announced that its investment in the Irish market will be between €800m and €1bn. A new customer contact centre in Limerick will employ 250.
Qumas, Avaya and 3V Transaction Services all announced job opportunities of 40, 55 and 55 respectively.
Irish online education firm Riverdeep purchased US publisher Houghton Mifflin for US$3.4bn in one of the biggest deals in Irish corporate history.
Some €60m in funds have been disbursed to date to support the career formation of more than 1,000 individual researchers under the National Development Plan, the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology announced.
By Niall Byrne