Broadband as essential as electricity - Telecom sector needs recognition as critical infrastructure

Broadband as essential as electricity - Telecom sector needs recognition as critical infrastructure

• Industry calls for VAT rate cut from 23% to 9% for consumer and business phone and broadband bills, in line with other utilities

Telecommunications Industry Ireland (TII), the Ibec group representing the telecommunications sector in Ireland, has warned that Ireland's digital infrastructure - and the highly competitive market it operates in - is being pushed to its limits by excessive regulatory burdens, expectations around capacity and capital for new technologies, and demands to invest declining revenues in security and resilience - leading to an increasingly challenging investment environment.

Independent research commissioned by Telecommunications Industry Ireland by Amárach reveals that 86% of people believe mobile and broadband services should be officially classified as essential national infrastructure, on par with electricity and water, while nearly three-quarters (73%) affirm that mobile and broadband services are as critical to their daily routines as power and water.

Economic contribution

95% of respondents recognise connectivity as vital to Ireland's broader economy and job market, supporting 270,000 workers in digitally intensive sectors and enabling over one million people to work from home. The sector directly employs over 24,000 people, and telco networks enables €386bn in online services/ business transactions - representing 41% of Ireland's GDP. The sector has invested over €5.5bn in private capital to drive high-capacity mobile and broadband connectivity across the nation, in the last nine years.

Meanwhile, a recent report* on Ireland's resilience - that the sector was involved in - calls for greater state alignment on security threats, noting that Ireland and the EU's security and resilience are inherently linked to networks and the cloud infrastructure they support.

If the country wants to defend against cybersecurity and physical infrastructure attacks (subsea cables, masts, towers, and fibre networks) in a challenging geopolitical environment, the State must work more closely with the sector and prioritise it, the industry has said. According to TII and the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (DETE) Ireland holds 30% of the EU's data.

Nicola Cooke, Director of Telecommunications Industry Ireland, said:

"Connectivity is no longer just a service, it is the lifeblood of our modern economy and society. The public clearly recognises that our digital networks are just as foundational to their lives as turning on a tap or switching on a light. As an industry, we are incredibly proud of the resilience and reach of our networks, which empower businesses to thrive and communities to stay connected across every region of Ireland.

"However, expecting operators in Ireland to continue to invest at the rate they have - which is necessary for the AI evolution, ongoing digital transformation across society and advanced technologies like 5G SA (Standalone) in simply not sustainable.

"Average revenue per user has almost halved in two decades here, while onerous EU legislation and Irish gold-plating of this - along with demands for more resilience and defence measures with no State support - will further drive up operator costs and this threatens the momentum of our digital transition."

Budget 2027

TII is calling on the Government to enact the following targeted measures in Budget 2027:

• Cut the VAT rate from 23% to 9% to treat telecommunications equitably with other essential utilities, directly lowering costs for households and businesses and provide a strategic subvention to reduce the fixed cost component of energy bills for critical infrastructure, including telecommunications. Telecoms operators are 24/7 power consumers providing essential services and striving to decarbonise their footprints.
• Establish a standalone €2,000-€5,000 voucher program to help small businesses cover internal infrastructure costs when migrating from legacy copper to high-speed fibre.
• Fund a pilot open-access shared infrastructure model to eliminate non-commercial rural mobile blackspots.

"The government must treat telecoms as the essential utility it is," Cooke added. "It is also important we continue to support the development and investment in the infrastructure to meet the needs of a transitioning economy. In the past eight years alone, data has increased by 460%, a trend which continues to grow through digital transformation and the advent of AI."

*Secure Connections: Ireland's Digital Infrastructure and the Resilience of European Connectivity published July 23^, 2026, and supported by Vodafone