Ms Carolan Lennon:

I will begin with the questions asked by Deputy Dooley and the Chairman on ALTO and the connection charges. ALTO has a number of members. If one looks at what is said by the various groups, the companies that invest in infrastructure such as SIRO and Virgin have a similar view to Eir's, which is that to invest in infrastructure and to commit to spending €1.5 billion as we have over the past five years and a further €1 billion over the next five years requires a certain degree of regulatory predictability and certainty. For private investors to put that kind of money into any country, they need to generate a certain level of return. ComReg has two main roles. One is to promote investment in infrastructure, because everyone wants to be able to connect to these networks, and the other is to drive competition. The companies which spend money on infrastructure want an environment for infrastructure investment to be created, and those who do not spend on infrastructure talk about competition. It is not a case of one size fits all for ALTO, however. I know that when its representatives appeared before the committee, many of the messages that emerged related to competition.

On the connection charge, ALTO did not compare apples with apples. They compared urban connection charges with rural connection charges. In the UK, the cost to connect a rural house to BT is between £500 and £550. There are competitors, one of which charges £250. In urban areas, the vast majority of connections are standard. When technicians go to a house, they experience the same level of drop, they will be going into a duct and the process is predictable and standard. Unfortunately, in rural areas, connections are not standard. What we now find is that the first time a technician visits a house is almost like a recce of what has to be done. Do we need to put a pole in? Do trees need to be trimmed? What will we have to do about cable? The cost of connecting a rural house, on average, is €450, because almost every connection is unique. The cost of a pole is €600. Many rural connections require the erection of a pole. That is the reality. Comparing the SIRO connection charge in urban and semi-urban areas with a connection in rural Ireland is not fair. Our connection cost is €450 whereas we charge €270. The connection charge reply did not compare apples with apples and it certainly did not compare like for like. Building networks in rural Ireland is expensive. The technology is not difficult. Splicing fibre and putting two pieces of fibre together is not difficult but being in 100 different parts of the country every day, making sure that the route is prepped, the traffic is managed, the trees are trimmed and that it is not bird nesting season, and everything works is what makes it difficult and slow. When it comes to connecting a property, that is what makes it expensive. I defend our position on our connection charges because they are considerably less than it costs us to connect customers.