Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 280: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will report on the roll out of the national broadband scheme; and the way it is being measured and assessed. [19536/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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My Department entered into a contract with "3", a Hutchison Whampoa company, for the delivery of the National Broadband Scheme (NBS) in late December 2008. In line with contractual obligations, services have been available in all of the 1,028 designated Electoral Divisions (ED) covered under the Scheme since October 2010.

My Department has put in place robust monitoring arrangements to ensure that the NBS network delivers the minimum specified service or better to all users. Performance delivery data, which is submitted to my Department by 3 on a monthly basis or as required, is critically analysed by independent technical consultants, Analysys Mason Ltd.

The monitoring arrangements provide information on a wide range of key indicators including broadband availability in each cell of the network, actual contention and latency values. Utilisation thresholds are set for each element of the network and upgrades of the network and its capacity are automatically triggered at contractually agreed levels of traffic to ensure that the quality of the broadband service is maintained. In addition, a sample selection of customers is monitored for quality on a monthly basis. Download and upload speeds are sampled at a number of locations monthly to ensure that minimum speeds are met or exceeded. The NBS contract guarantees service levels and imposes a service credit regime on 3 with significant financial consequences in the event that minimum specification service levels are not met.