Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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116. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will investigate the poor quality of service and inadequate signal by national broadband service providers 3 company, in Barleymount, West Killarney, County Kerry, as there are several businesses in this area and the poor quality of service is causing loss of income for these businesses and is inhibiting any growth within them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4486/14]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The broadband service under National Broadband Scheme (NBS) is a basic, affordable, scalable product in keeping with EU State Aid clearance for the Scheme in September 2007. Under the terms of the contract with Hutchison 3G Ireland Ltd (trading as “3”), which is overseen by my Department, the NBS mobile wireless service currently offers minimum download and upload speeds of 2.3Mbps and 1.4Mbps respectively, subject to a maximum contention ratio of 18:1. The NBS satellite service, which is utilised in a small number of cases for technical reasons associated with the location of the premises, offers minimum download and upload speeds of 3.6Mbps and 384 kbps respectively, subject to a maximum contention ratio of 48:1.

My Department has well-established monitoring arrangements in place to ensure that the NBS delivers the minimum specified service or better to all users. 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. The NBS contract also provides that where NBS customers do not receive the minimum guaranteed service, as set out in the terms and conditions of their contract, they are entitled to service rebates.

As part of 3’s network operations oversight, traffic and utilisation performance data, including site availability across the entire NBS network, is reviewed by "3" on a continuous basis. Remedial action can be taken remotely or 3’s field engineering staff will resolve performance issues at individual sites, depending on the nature of the incident. Annual site maintenance inspections are carried out by "3" on each of its sites.

I understand from "3" that the sites serving the area of Barleymount have been performing as expected. My officials are not currently aware of any service performance issues with the NBS service in the Barleymount area. Should any NBS customer experience problems with the NBS service, they are advised to contact 3's customer care centre, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, by phone at 1913 (free of charge), via email to or by post to 3 Customer Services, Hutchison 3G Ireland Limited, PO Box 333, Dublin 2.

My Department has a role where customers have fully utilised the established complaints process and consider that their complaint has not been resolved. My officials operate a dedicated NBS mailbox, which NBS customers can contact by email at , with any comments or complaints they may have about their NBS service. My Department will then liaise with “3” personnel at its Head Office in Dublin to ensure that any service performance issues, which are brought to its attention, are addressed as quickly as possible.