Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 November 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

National Broadband Plan Roll-out: Discussion

Mr. Peter Hendrick:

I will. Where I was going on the acceleration point is that we intend to update everybody on a local level but also on our website on the acceleration programme and the broadband connection points. Over the next four to six weeks, people will start to see a lot more information on our website. As of this week, we have started to see the build programme for the next 12 months where we are passing premises. Equally, as we on board these 33 retail operators we will start putting that information on our website. These will be the retail operators from whom people can buy services and the types of services and bundles that can be bought, including TV, broadband and voice. We will make all of this information available now so people will have better access and visibility.

If I look at the blue premises, while we are not prioritising specific areas, it is a natural build programme and as we come out of the urban and town areas, we will pass many of these homes that have been stranded between the blue areas. We are coming out from where there are commercial operators because that is where the infrastructure is and the backhaul, space and power. I can say with confidence that over the next 12 to 24 months, we will start servicing a majority of those homes that are close to high-speed broadband and do not have it today. Over the coming weeks, people will start to see the retail operators starting to sell to those homes because they are already providing services to their neighbours. The fact we have all 33 operators on board, and we are accounting for 98% or 99% of the retail operators in the Irish market today, means they are actively going to be selling services on the national broadband plan network as they do on other commercial wholesale operators.

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