Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 70: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the estimated number of rural properties nationally and in County Meath that are currently without landline broadband and that are unable to access wireless broadband due to local topography; the provision he is making for broadband services to be provided to these properties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24963/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department does not hold data regarding the number of properties that are currently without landline broadband or that are unable to access wireless broadband due to local topography and accordingly I am unable to provide the estimated numbers sought by the Deputy.

In implementing the National Broadband Scheme (NBS), my Department undertook an assessment of broadband coverage in the State in mid-2008 and prepared a coverage map based on electoral divisions. This enabled the Department to determine which electoral divisions should be included in the NBS.

EU State aid and competition rules govern how States can intervene in areas where there are existing service providers. Broadband platforms do not respect exact geographic boundaries and are difficult to define due to radio propagation or DSL reach issues. The nature of broadband networks is such that they provide a coverage footprint over a certain area rather than an individual link to isolated premises.

It was necessary to guard against the NBS coverage footprint spilling over to an extent which would be unacceptable from a state aids perspective, onto surrounding areas already served by existing service providers. Accordingly, an unacceptable level of market distortion would have resulted from including premises that are located in areas considered to be already substantially served by existing service providers. These areas had to be excluded from the scope of the scheme and will not be addressed by the NBS. The uncovered buildings in the electoral divisions excluded from the NBS (c. 12,500 buildings) represent c.0.7% of all buildings in the State.

In addition to those premises identified as being outside of the coverage of service providers, there are also premises outside of the NBS areas that appear to have persistent difficulty in obtaining a broadband service. This is primarily due to technical and locational reasons (suitability of telephone line, distance from an enabled exchange, no line of sight etc.). There is no substantiated estimate of the number of consumers who find themselves in this situation.

Funding for rural broadband has become available from the European Economic Recovery Plan through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) administered by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. My Department is in the process of developing a new measure under the Rural Development Plan to use this funding to address the issue of basic broadband availability to remaining unserved rural premises outside of the NBS areas.

A key element of putting any scheme in place will be to identify those remaining premises where no broadband service is available. In a fully liberalised market it is essential to intervene only where the market is unable to provide a service and the Department will be consulting fully with the existing service providers in this respect. It is intended to commence the scheme later this year with the identification of premises not capable of receiving broadband. It is expected that the roll-out phase of the scheme will be carried out during 2011 and 2012.