Mr. Patrick Neary:

The maps show coverage for 2G, 3G and 4G services. One will be told about the coverage, which ranges from very good to very poor. The coverage is outdoor coverage. The 2G coverage is in a lot of locations. It is available outdoors nearly nationally. There is a problem with the coverage inside in the house as the signals do not penetrate due to insulation and the thickness of walls. Another initiative was put in place to try to address that. There is a solution for consumers to put a repeater on their home, which will boost the signal so that they can get coverage inside their house. Those repeaters are now available.

A list of providers is available on ComReg's website. They are licensed providers of the solution. Again, this is something that came through the mobile phone and broadband task force.

The second item, which we have been pushing the operators to introduce, involves functionality whereby a person's phone will use the Wi-Fi connectivity in the house to make a call on the mobile service. Thus, the phone automatically uses the Wi-Fi service. It is called Wi-Fi calling. That will have a quite dramatic impact, particularly when high-speed reliable broadband is available in houses through the NBP and in other areas. If one has access to Wi-Fi in one's house, one's mobile service should work very well. These are two major initiatives that will make a major difference to consumers over time.

The repeater initiative would require the consumer to take action and put the solution in place whereas Wi-Fi calling is operator controlled. The latter will be available once one has access to Wi-Fi. These are two major initiatives that will help.