Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I do not believe I said "No" to anything. I am keeping all options open. I would not predetermine what the final structures or ownership structures might be for any company in the area. The one difference between this area and any other utility, be it water or electricity, is that there is a multitude of ways to deliver the service. Electricity will only ever be delivered down a wire and water will only ever be delivered by pipe. Telecommunications, however, can be delivered by means of wireless, satellite, fixed cable, DSL or fixed line telecommunication services. It is intrinsically different and is a far more fast moving and changing utility sector, which means there will be different solutions. There is no comparison between electricity and telecommunications or in the example the Deputy mentioned of the separation of EirGrid from the ESB.

That complexity and the fact that there are myriad ways of delivering services adds to the regulatory issues I mentioned earlier. We are facing a more varied system. A telecommunications signal will go through a variety of different sources in the connection between laptops. It may go from a fixed line to wireless or vice versa, on into a backhaul network, that might actually be owned by the ESB, and then connect to another operator's network into an international system and into a server. Not only are there various different ways of delivering it, one may well get a voice message that goes through a variety of systems and, indeed, different operators' systems.

In general, I believe there should be as open an access network as possible, where mobile networks are open and other operators use their networks to deliver certain services, where the fixed line network is opened and where a variety of different users use services in a flexible way. That will be particularly appropriate in this country because we have two different distinct markets, an urban one and a rural one. We will require a flexible response which suits the different characteristics of the two.

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