Mr. Peter Hendrick:

That is correct. The 23,000 premises include those which are available today to place an order. That number is increasing. Every two weeks we update the industry forum. The industry forum includes the retail or wholesale operators that have signed up to sell services on the NBP network. Today, there are 46 retailers that are actively signed up and are looking to sell services on our network. That number increases every two weeks. As we start to build the network, that number will increase.

In terms of the overall count, I appreciate that 23,000 does not sound like a large number. If, however, we look at the forward indicators in terms of getting to a point where we will be able to offer a service, we must consider at what stage we are at with the surveys. We have half the entire country surveyed as of today. Those surveys then have to be designed. We have to check what poles need to be replaced and what ducts need to be repaired. Once we have the designs complete, we then issue them to Eir for the "make ready" aspect of their infrastructure. We are putting cables up on Eir's poles and in its ducts. We need Eir to do what is called a "make ready" programme. It will replace any poles that need to be replaced or repair any ducts. Equally, we have to trim trees in order to put the cables on the poles. There is a whole element of pre-work required. We have designs being submitted to Eir,. In the coming weeks, we will increase those designs. Today, there are 108,000 premises that are actively under construction and work is happening on the ground throughout 26 counties. In the coming weeks - Mr. Malone can go into this point in more detail - we will be issuing contracts for subcontractors in respect of 195,000 premises. One can see the momentum is building and there is a time between when we issue the contracts and when we get homes passed. Those numbers will start to increase very quickly versus where we were 12 months ago.