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Well that's what we're told anyway, and when I recently wrote a column challenging this claim plenty of folks said I was wrong.

Since then, this story has been published which seemingly supports my case (even though I was playing devil's advocate).

Whenever asked for a list of countries that have turned themselves around and used the creation of a KBE to rejuvenate their fiscal welbeing, Ireland is always on or near the top of that list. But hang on -- Ireland's broadband situation seems even worse than ours!

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What's the guts with that?

Even with the Pound/Kiwi rate being around 40p to the dollar, the average internet bill for a user in Ireland is about $57 per month. Haven't I seen broadband offers of $29.95 per month here in NZ? In fact, the sponsor of this column has such offers I believe -- <BLATANT>go on, show your support and visit the sponsor's website</BLATANT> :=)

Yet, despite these "worse than Kiwi" rates of broadband availability and price, Ireland continues to thrive and has surged up the OECD list of nations when it comes to the wealth of its population and its productivity.

Could Cunliffe and is mates be jumping on Telecom's case solely because it's a great way of avoiding any responsibility for government's almost utter failure to create the thriving KBE we've bneen promised since 1999?

Perhaps they're operating on the belief that if you build it (fast, cheap broadband) then they (investors, entrepreneurs and knowledge-based businesses) will come.

That doesn't seem to be the case in Ireland. In fact, it seems that other factors such as sensible levels of taxation, fostering overseas investment, etc, have a *much* greater effect on the growth of a KBE.

Let's face it, why would any company in its right mind spend a small fortune to invest in a knowledge-based Kiwi venture when they could spend the same money in Ireland, Singapore or a dozen other countries and not then be forced to hand more than a third of it over to the government by way of company tax?

Let's learn from the example if Ireland and realise that the development of a vibrant and lucrative KBE is not reliant on fast, cheap, ubiquitous broadband but on many other factors.

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