Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 October 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Mobile Telephone Coverage and High Speed Broadband Availability: Discussion

10:40 am

Mr. Kevin O'Brien:

We are at the procurement stage of purchasing the new drive test facility, which will be deployed next year. We have set it up to extend it significantly compared with what has been done in the past. The big question for us in terms of licence obligations is whether we are statistically robust and if the measuring will stand up. The experts providing the service to us must answer that question, and it must be an accurate measure of the overall characteristic of the network. We have specified the process to cover all national roads but not anything more at this stage.

However, that does not detract from the accuracy of the overall measurement in terms of percentage population coverage. There is a statistical question in that, but we are safe in dealing with that by not going beyond the national routes at this stage. We are always open to further consideration of this.

The Deputy mentioned that a number of areas in her constituency have been brought to her attention in respect of mobile coverage. We would be happy if she would communicate those to us. We can take if offline. We follow up with operators regarding consumer questions and complaints in specific areas.