Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

Different models apply in the market. Certain wholesale providers of backhaul do it on the basis the Deputy is talking about in that they provide access to the unlit fibre and the client has full use of that ducting in their infrastructure to deliver it. Other operators will go on a wholesale basis. We are not talking about changing the market conditions for every different supplier in terms of the way they operate their business. What we are doing is using State infrastructure to try to assist each business to improve the backhaul infrastructure, recognising that the development of broadband on the demand side — mobile 3G systems, on-line video demand and so on — will require a massive increase in digital data traffic across the country and a significant development of the backhaul network. We want to make the State assets available to make that happen quicker and at least cost.

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