This research examines the development of universal service in Ireland over the period from 1880 to 1993. Universal service is a key element o f telecommunications policy. Its precise meaning is the subject o f dispute between differing political outlooks buts its objectives are essentially understood as socially-oriented, promoting the diffusion of telecommunications technologies beyond that achieved by the market, and facilitating access to those same technologies at affordable rates.\ud
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Differences over the precise meaning of universal service are also the result of the long history of universal service. Although the term itself is a twentieth century one, it has been argued that its fundamental tenets are embodied in particular policy objectives and in particular the long established concept of public service.\ud
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Thus this research has examined the history of the concept in Ireland over the period of a century with a view to understanding how the current working definition of universal service has been arrived at. The research looks in depth at the development and diffusion of the telephone across Ireland. It describes how the telephone network has expanded from the cities to reach the entire geographical extent of Ireland. It also examines the factors which have driven and the factors which have constrained the development of the telephone network: the overall economic condition of the country, the respective influences of industry, agriculture and society at large, the development of new telecommunication technologies and the perception of the role of the telephone on the part of those with the greatest influence on its expansion: the private companies, governments departments and state agencies which have been charged with the operation of the telephone service. In short this research seeks to identify the specific political, economic, social and technological factors that shaped the development of the telephone system in Ireland.\ud
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in the final chapters, the research describes universal service as it is in Ireland of the 1990s, concluding that ultimately the scope o f universal service policy in Ireland has been severely constrained both by economic factors (the cost of providing the service) and a political unwillingness to effectively recognise the social role of the telephone. Thus whilst the research considers how new information and communication technologies will affect future conceptions of universal service, it argues that the philosophy underlying the provision of the “plain old telephone service” in Ireland falls far short of the ideal of universal service