Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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92. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will give details of the level of take up of MANs in areas in which it has been rolled out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26709/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Under Phase I of the Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) Programme, 28 MANs were completed and 60 MANs, covering 66 towns, were completed under Phase II. The MANs which are regionally dispersed enhance the attractiveness of the locations for indigenous and foreign investment. A list of the MANs and their respective locations is detailed in the tables below.

The MANs are managed, operated, maintained and marketed by e|net, on behalf of the State. There has been significant improvement over the last few years in the take-up by service providers of the MANs. Of the 88 MANs, 81 are currently “lit”, that is, connected to backhaul and in use by one or more telecoms service providers. It is estimated that in excess of 600,000 individuals and business users are benefitting from the MANs infrastructure.

Since the inception of the MANs Programme, demand for bandwidth has increased significantly and this increase is expected to continue. Almost all broadband service providers, (including DSL, mobile, cable, wireless), are increasingly turning to optical fibre to backbone their networks. Service providers will continue to bring optical fibre closer to their end users. The MANs are ready to meet the demand for fibre connectivity and to serve the needs of service providers and their end users for the foreseeable future.

Phase One