Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is establishing two regional action groups. These new structures at both national and local levels are designed to address, as far as possible, immediate frustrations about the quality of mobile phone and broadband coverage as well as the roll out of the national broadband plan over the next 12 months. My Department is liaising closely with the industry and the other relevant Departments and agencies to assist in the commercial deployment of telecommunications networks. The key focus in the short term will be on the mobile phone and broadband task force.

To answer the Deputy's question, with respect to 4G roll out, Vodafone has 98% 3G coverage and 95% 4G coverage; Meteor has 99% 3G coverage and 75% 4G coverage; and 3 has 96% 3G coverage and 73% 4G coverage. However, the difficulty is that this is coverage of the population rather than of the geographic area of the country. Approximately 70% of premises are on about 4% of the landmass of the country and therein lies the problem. There is an issue with the way the current licences are structured. It is all about population coverage rather than geographic coverage. This is historic problem not only in Ireland but right across Europe. We will have to examine this issue when it come to the next round of licences.

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