Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 7 July 2021
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport
Broadband Infrastructure: Discussion
Mr. Brendan McGahon:
I might come in there. What we are dealing with here is spot beam technology. Spot beams can be focused over geographic areas. All of the other countries in Europe are looking at these satellites being developed. They are looking at how many spot beams they will commit to. If Ireland does not act now, we are in danger of not having access to that capacity, once these satellites go up. Satellite capacity is being pre-booked. At the minute, when a customer comes onto our satellite network, we commit to a small amount of bandwidth on a per-customer basis. If, as you say, villages and townlands will be connected onto a satellite service, then we would need to commit to some dedicated bandwidth for Ireland.
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