Mr. Declan Campbell:

I would like to begin by thanking the Chairman and the committee for the invitation to attend the meeting. Mr. name is Declan Campbell. I am the managing director of Digiweb. I am joined by my colleague, Mr. Brendan McGahon, who heads up Digiweb's operations.

Digiweb is headquartered in Dundalk, County Louth. We are a 100% Irish-owned broadband provider. We are a proud member of Guaranteed Irish and we are the top-rated Internet service provider on Trustpilot. We are passionate about providing excellent customer service along with state-of-the-art broadband technology to all of our customers. Digiweb Group employs more than 150 highly-skilled individuals in its Dundalk, Blanchardstown and Limerick locations.

Digiweb has been providing broadband services in Ireland for almost 25 years. We have used a variety of different technologies, from satellite to fixed wireless, DSL and, more recently, fibre-to-the-home, FTTH, broadband through providers such as SIRO, Open Eir and National Broadband Ireland, NBI. We are a retail provider for NBI and we are adding NBI customers on a weekly basis as the service is rolled out and becomes available in their areas.

There is no doubt that FTTH broadband is the gold standard in connectivity. We are supportive of the Government's drive to roll out FTTH broadband to rural Ireland. That said, the national broadband plan is an ambitious five- to seven-year plan. We believe that satellite broadband can play a role in providing a stop-gap solution to homes and businesses throughout rural Ireland that will not be passed for fibre broadband until the later end of the national broadband roll-out.

Digiweb has nearly 25 years' experience in managing satellite broadband networks in Ireland and in other European locations. We believe that Digiweb's satellite broadband industry knowledge and international contacts can help the Government. Like all technology, satellite broadband has improved in recent years and the industry has been transformed, both by new purpose-built high-speed satellites and hardware and software developments at ground level. Satellite broadband offers many advantages. It is available nearly everywhere in the country - all you have to do is see the sky above you. It is quick to deploy. It takes approximately two hours to install. It will offer broadband level speeds of up to 100 Mbps. We believe it is a cost-effective solution. As we move forward, new technologies are allowing us to pinpoint capacity to specific areas where the demand is high.

Previously, a satellite would have covered all of Europe. We can now, with the technologies that are available, focus that satellite footprint or coverage area into the south east or the south west. It is going from an entire European footprint down to that type of local level. As for the future of satellite, over the next 18 months or so, two planned GEO satellite launches will transform satellite capacity and availability over Europe. These new satellites will feature steerable beam technology meaning that bandwidth and coverage can be focused on areas where capacity requirements are strong. Dedicated capacity on these satellites can now be pre-booked.

One of the two GEO satellites I am referring to is owned by an EU company, Eutelsat. It is due to launch at the end of this year. It will offer a combined capacity of 500 Gbps. To put that in context, 500 Gbps of capacity is the same as all of the capacity available today on the GEO satellite broadband services over Europe. One satellite due to be launched at the end of this year will provide the same capacity that is available to all of the GEO satellites that are up there at present. The second satellite being deployed is from an American company, Viasat. It looks like the latter is planning to trump Eutelsat because it is offering 1,000 Gbps as the total capacity on its satellite, which is due to launch in mid-2022. Both of these future generation satellites will offer the end user speeds of more than 100 Mbps. The dish that will be deployed on their premises will be approximately 74 cm in size - similar to the size of a Sky television dish.

While there is no doubt that full FTTH technology is the gold standard in terms of broadband connectivity and Ireland's five- to seven-year national broadband plan is ambitious, some homes and businesses within the intervention area will not be passed by fibre broadband for several years to come. The pandemic has shown that those citizens living on the wrong side of the digital divide have suffered in terms of access to education and their access to high-speed fibre.

Satellite broadband services have delivered Internet access to more than 10,000 premises in Ireland over the years. While it is historically known as the option of last resort, it provides these homes and businesses with a much-needed service as opposed to no service at all. In the next 18 months, satellite broadband will take another leap forward in terms of capacity and the benefits it can offer. We believe that those end users in the intervention areas who will not gain access to fibre broadband in the near future would benefit from installing a temporary satellite broadband service.

Given that these future generation satellites will focus additional capacity on those countries in Europe where demand is high, we believe Ireland needs to act now to secure its share of that capacity before other European countries take it for their own needs. There are several ways the Government could assist here to provide many end users with a modern satellite broadband service for a modest cost and on a temporary basis. Digiweb would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further because we are keen to help advance Ireland's new national digital strategy.