Mr. Mark Griffin:

Every single technology that is deployable has been looked at. Every company that came forward, as part of the procurement process, proposed fibre to the home.

Every single member state across the EU which has looked at how to deal with the technology infrastructure deficit in rural parts of their countries has opted for fibre to the home, fixed wireless in some small parts of the overall outlay, and 4G and 5G as complementary technologies. We have one of the best companies in the world helping us on the technology aspect of this and it is crystal clear that fibre to the home is the solution. Our own regulator, ComReg, last week indicated that 5G could only be a complementary technology to fibre to the home and that fibre to the home provides far greater benefits in terms of speed, scalability and future-proofing.