Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

On the timing for Dublin, I do not believe the particular areas Deputy Donnelly is talking about are in the first 18 months so, at the moment, I cannot tell him whether it is in year two or year three. What I would recommend, and I would recommend this to any Deputy, is to reach out to NBI, and I believe NBI is actively reaching out to Deputies, Senators and councillors to give them that information in the best way it can.

On the BCPs, if it is pending, it will be live in the coming months, I would imagine. Vodafone is to go live with those. To explain the BCPs, the first BCP was launched in Dublin by the Ministers, Deputy Ryan and Deputy Humphreys, not so long ago. NBI builds the connection and it brings the actual high-speed broadband connection to the side of the wall of the building. Our colleagues in the Department of Rural and Community Development have a contract with Vodafone, and Vodafone goes live in each BCP and provides outdoor coverage and indoor coverage. Within the BCPs in the Dublin area and every other county, residents and others can get broadband within 40 m of that building at 150 Mb, and they can also get it internally, obviously. The benefit of outside is that if, at the weekend, for some reason, a person needs to do something they cannot do at home, they can go up to that building, although they would want to check the opening times, whether the car park is open and whether it is actually available, as every BCP is separate and bespoke, and it is up to the owners of the site what they do. I cannot remember exactly how many BCPs are in Dublin but I know there are two in north Dublin and Fingal, and my understanding is they will all be done very shortly in the new year. That is a big bonus to anyone living in that area if they need to use it.

I am not sure I quite understood the question on the State infrastructure and the subsidy, but retailers will be buying access to the NBI network on a monthly basis at, say, €30 per month, which is pegged to the regulated rate that Comreg oversees with Eircom for a wholesale provider service. It allows them to sell the same retail service to consumers in north Dublin, north Donegal or anywhere across the country at the same level. Therefore, generally, a bundle of broadband and television in Dublin might cost €50, €60 or €70, and it will be the same across the country when this is built because the wholesale input will be the same to all the retailers.

With regard to 5G masts and towers, I might pass that question to Mr. Neary. In terms of connection, if the 5G towers are built and there is no connection, NBI is allowed, subject to very strict state aid criteria, to offer backhaul to mobile broadband providers with mobile masts across the country if there is a deficit in the commercial sector. Most masts and towers would be connected by other commercial companies with backhaul, like Eircom, Enet and so on, but subject to strict state aid rules. NBI, which is a commercial company too, may in certain circumstances be able to offer mobile backhaul as well, and it is certainly part of its job jar to do. Certainly, where there is a deficit in fibre backhaul, its job across the country is to do that, and there are lots of towers and masts in Coillte forests across the country, and so on. Where it is commercial for NBI to do that, it can go and do it, but we do not subsidise that part. We do not subsidise mobile backhaul; we only subsidise the fibre connection to the home.

In terms of future proofing, we had this debate long and hard for the last couple of years before the contract was signed in regard to whether fibre will become a thing of the past when 5G is rolled out, and Deputy Ó Cuív probably has an opinion on that. We on this side of the table see that all ships are rising because the data usage growth of consumers and businesses is exponential, and there is no one-size-fits-all and no one network that is going to outdo another network. Fibre is critical to every network, including 5G, and the ultimate test of the networks is how much fibre backhaul they have out there and what capacity can bring all that data and video down. As members can see from the ComReg stats, year on year, the double-digit growth in data for mobile and fixed means we will need to have loads of fibre across the country, and the NBI build is bridging that gap in rural Ireland. The fibre to the home, the mobile 5G, the Internet of Things, and all those things people talk about in the home and in business, will be underpinned by that fibre going to that building, but we will still need a 5G network for outdoor coverage for cars, machines and that sort of thing. Perhaps Mr. Neary can come in on that as he would be the expert on 5G and can explain what that is going to do.