Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

Access is just one of a list of issues that we went through with the ESB. We discussed access to the ESB network, how broadband and electricity could cohabit without discommoding electricity consumers and the impact on wholesale and retail prices for electricity if poles and ducts are being shared. Connecting rural homes is different to connecting urban homes. The latter is predominantly done underground. Customers can be switched off in one area because there is broadband but connected in another. There is an array of issues which we would probably get through. We planned to get through them with the ESB so that its network was available but in the context of the programme that we have in place, it is not clear that it could be done faster or that it would be cheaper. While we do not know for sure, we do not believe it would be.

In terms of the road network in the context of Eircom, it has just connected 300,000 customers and has learned a lot from that. It worked very well so we have a proven network as opposed to an unproven one in the form of the electricity network across private land and across every part of rural Ireland. The bidder has chosen the Eircom network because it wants to have lesser risk on that roll-out. KN Networks and other companies, as the contractors, are now very familiar with what it takes to put fibre on Eircom poles and under Eircom ducts.

Other contractors do not have the same experience of using the ESB network and getting authorisation to climb its poles.