Reasons why Ireland rocks for telecoms innovation
The Enterprise Ireland Silicon Valley blog has a post on why Ireland rocks for telecoms innovation. Number 5 is:
Irish universities are active in telecoms research. A number have linked with industry to develop novel products. For example, UCC are working on encryption techniques; Maynooth are working on wireless Antenna control.
There are a bunch of world class research centres in Ireland investigating different aspects of networks and telecommunictaions, including:
- CTVR (an SFI-funded CSET) hosted in TCD;
- WIT/TSSG (which hosts the SFI-funded FAME SRC among its many projects);
- The Hamilton Institute and the Institute of Microelectronics and Wireless Systems at NUI Maynooth;
- The Photonic Systems Group in Tyndall;
- RINCE hosted in DCU;
- The Networks and Distributed Systems Group in UCD.
Another reason I would add to the list is ComReg, the Commission for Communications Regulation. While ComReg regularly comes in for criticism from the Irish blogging community for not pushing hard enough to get broadband rollout, it does deserve credit for its enlightened view over allocation of spectrum for telecoms research. Because we’re an island, Ireland is an ideal test-bed for research and development of wireless technologies which can be tested and developed without polluting the spectrum of our neighbours.
April 24th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Maybe for high end innovation but cost and higher bandwidth remain a challenge for the general public.
If we are to see innovations in areas that affect normal users e.g. IP TV, true homeworking, etc, investment needs to expand off campus also