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

The fact is that there are services on the way for the vast majority of customers across the country in advance of the roll-out of the national broadband plan. That is why we are focusing immediately on implementation of the task force's report on mobile phone and broadband services. We will publish the results in the next couple of weeks. The contract based on EU state aid rules must be technology neutral. We have to be cognisant of this, but the base requirement is that the technology used must be future proofed for the next 25 years. As the Deputy is aware, the European Commission has published its proposals for a 1 gigabit society. Because of this, the technology will have to be able to accommodate that speed in the future. At the end of the day what technology the companies propose is up to them, but they must comply with the requirement set down and because of this they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution.

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