Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 14 February 2019

Public Accounts Committee

Imagine Communications Group

9:00 am

Mr. Sean Bolger:

We are talking about a completely different scenario here with 5G. 5G is massive capacity. We are not talking about something theoretical but what is working now today. LTE was at 100 Mbps and the reality in the market would have been about 70 Mbps. That is why when we did a trial we did not say up to 100 Mbps, as many people would have done. We said it was up to 70 Mbps. Right now we can do up to 300 Mbps but we are not saying that. We are saying that, on average, people will get 150 Mbps. Probably 95% of people who have fibre get 150 Mbps. The evolution of the technology is not something we are saying but is a global technology and global standard. We had the chief technology officer, CTO, of Ofcom with us yesterday at the launch. These trials and roll-outs are happening all over the world. We must be clear. It is a very high speed broadband service and it is future-proofed given that it is a global industry with billions being invested in it. The current standard for 5G is 20 Gbps. In fact, Ofcom says it is 50 Gbps. It has gone beyond practicality at that point in time. That is the reality.

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