Written answers

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

National Broadband Plan Implementation

Photo of Seán ConlanSeán Conlan (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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253. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason a person (details supplied) in County Monaghan is not covered by the national broadband scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38513/15]

Photo of Alex WhiteAlex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided.

The commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing approximately €2.5 billion in network upgrades and enhanced services. These very significant investments represent a step-change in the quality of broadband services available.

Last November I published a national high speed coverage map for 2016. This map is available at . The areas marked BLUE represent those areas that will have access to commercial high speed broadband services.

The AMBER areas show the target areas for the State intervention. All premises within the AMBER areas will be included in the State's intervention including the townland of Caraghramer, Co Monaghan.

It is anticipated that speeds of at least 30Mbps will be also delivered through the Government's intervention and the network will be designed to cater for future increased demand from consumers and business.

My Department has recently received updated information from operators in respect of further commercial rollout of high speed services. The Department is now reviewing all of the data provided by operators for 2016 - 2020 with a view to validating and updating commercial coverage plans and revising the map as appropriate.

The map allows all members of the public, be they business or residential, to see whether their premises / home will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by end 2016 or whether they will be included in the Government's proposed intervention.

Meanwhile, my Department continues to review the technical and financial detail relating to potential new commercial investment proposals with a view to updating the intervention area Map. I expect to publish an updated version of the Map and to proceed to formal procurement before the end of the year.

The Government is determined to ensure that the network is built out as quickly as possible and engagement with industry stakeholders has indicated that this could be achieved within 3-5 years of the contract award.

In this context, the NBP proposes that through the combination of commercial investment and State intervention, 85% of addresses in Ireland will have access to high speed services by 2018 with all addresses passed by 2020.

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