Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Given the complexity of this issue, I have already suggested to the Deputy that it would be a good idea for the Joint Committee on Communications, Natural Resources and Agriculture to invite ComReg to make a submission on this matter. The Deputy is probably posing the question because he knows there is no such thing as 100% coverage. He also knows that in many of the precedents set there has not been 100% coverage, even in the case of the RTE signal. For example, when Vodafone received its licence, the requirement was that there be 85% coverage. In the case of O2, the figure was 80%, and for Meteor, 53%. Because of the competition factor to which I referred, all of these operators comfortably exceeded the requirement set. The result is that we now pretty much have universal coverage. I have represented views to ComReg which has conducted its consultation process. It would be productive if ComReg was to make a submission to the joint committee.

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