Results 2,321-2,340 of 3,336 for speaker:Kate O'Connell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: So they will be getting the same standard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: But it is not the same standard. It is a different standard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: To go back to the apples and oranges again, it is different.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: When Ms Lennon was before the Committee of Public Accounts, the Chairman, Deputy Fleming, asked about getting the cable to the door. Ms Lennon said that it was a 50 m drop and Eir's plan was to bring the cable from the pole outside a house to the eaves of the house.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: From that meeting, my understanding was that Eir was running a cable down the road and it or another provider - Virgin, for example - would charge the people in the house for the connection from the road to their house.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: It is usually €170.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Or waive the charge.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: The difficulty in getting to hard to reach places has been well voiced at this and other committee meetings. In that light, how does the business model of €170 work? Does Eir apply that rate to even the most difficult to reach places?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: The overbuild, duplication or whatever people want to call it was mentioned last week. Regarding the 300,000 premises, there are cables already and Eir is using those. There was a conversation last week, one I am sure Ms Lennon was too busy to look in on, about whether NBI would plug into either end of Eir's 300,000 roll-out. I am assuming those premises are not all in a row.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: At the genesis of this process, did SIRO or NBI ask Eir to upgrade what was running along the 300,000 premises?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: What are Eir's speeds in that product?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Which witnesses appeared before the committee last week?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Yes. There was commentary last week about the standard of the cable. I do not want to attribute these comments to the wrong person, and I may have heard this on a show, but it was stated that the cable running along the poles in respect of the 300,000 premises was not next generation standard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Is the cable sitting on those poles of the same quality, future proofing and next generation standard as that which the emerging preferred bidder would use?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: There is no difference.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: The capacity and speed in the 300,000 roll-out are equal to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: There is no quality issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Ms Lennon is telling us that the €1 billion would cover the design, build and roll-out of broadband to the 540,000 premises despite the complexities of the intervention area, that it would be connected to people's doors-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: -----over the ground, after which they could duct it or do whatever they wanted themselves, and that it would be operated and maintained as per the proposal for 25 years. Ms Lennon is saying that will cost €1 billion. An obvious factor is that Eir owns the poles, which would add €900,000 to the figure were there a level playing field.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: But the €1 billion all comes from having different terms of reference starting out and a different service level agreement, SLA, in respect of customers and, theoretically, from re-entering the procurement process, which could take three or five years. Eir or other companies could pull out in that time, leaving us with no broadband.