Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 10 February 2022
Public Accounts Committee
2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan Expenditure and Related Matters
9:30 am
Mr. Peter Hendrick:
I will put it like this. We would assume we will get to an overall take-up of approximately 85%. Originally, when we looked at historical data cross Europe, and we were not comparing against fibre networks because at the time there was not a significant level of them being built, we assumed that it could be up to eight years after work was completed in a deployment area before that threshold of 85% take-up would be reached. We are seeing that the demand for high-speed broadband is greater, that the capacity requirements are greater and that Eir is committed to switching off the copper network, notwithstanding other retailers in the market that have TV or mobile services that are driving their customers onto this network. The achievement of 85% should happen significantly faster. If I go by Eir’s switch off of copper, Eir has committed that it wants to switch off that copper network within five years of NBI finishing in a deployment area. That brings the period down from eight years to maybe five years after completing in a deployment area.
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