Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when he expects the telecommunications sector in this country to achieve comparable status in terms of speed, efficiency and modernisation with the best available throughout Europe or globally; the steps necessary to achieve this objective; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44021/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The provision of electronic communications services is, in the first instance, a matter for competing service providers operating in Ireland’s fully liberalised telecommunications market, regulated by the independent regulator, the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). The telephony market is served by a variety of commercial fixed line, wireless and mobile providers. The Government has also undertaken a number of initiatives in the provision of broadband to bring service to those parts of the country where operators have not offered services on a commercial basis. In the case of the National Broadband Scheme (NBS), for example, services are available from the NBS service provider, 3, in each of the 1,028 Electoral Divisions (ED) where a lack of broadband access had been identified. Ireland is already ahead of the EU Commission’s Digital Agenda for Europe target of having a basic broadband service available to all areas by 2013.

There has also been progress in the commercial telecommunications sector. Competition, technological innovation and consumer pressure has increased the contracted broadband speeds available and has brought down some prices for broadband, voice, data and bundled services. Broadband, for example has entry level packages starting from €10 - €15 per month. Consumers who are looking to get broadband or other telecommunications services or get better value through an alternative provider can find this information through ComReg’s independent price comparison website .

Progress is also being achieved in terms of broadband speeds and in the number of broadband customers. At end June 2012 the proportion of all residential customers contracted at speeds below 2 megabits per second (Mbps) fell to approximately 5% compared to 13% in June 2010 and 48% in June 2008, as the total number of contracted broadband users increased from 1m in June 2008 to 1.5m in June 2010 and 1.65m in June 2012.

The Government’s recently-published National Broadband Plan aims to radically change the broadband landscape in Ireland by ensuring that high speed services of at least 30Mbps are available to all of our citizens and businesses well in advance of the EU’s target date of 2020, and that significantly higher speeds are available to as many homes and businesses as possible. In addition, ComReg is currently in the process of awarding spectrum rights of use across three critical bands – the 800Mhz, 900Mhz and 1800Mhz bands – for the period 2013 to 2030. This award process is a vital step in allowing for the next generation of advanced mobile services to be made available for Irish consumers and businesses from next year.