Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

261. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if the broadband service will improve on a monthly or on a yearly basis over the next two years; if its quality and availability will be comparable to that available in other jurisdictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16642/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for a Partnership Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority.  This is being achieved through private investment by commercial telecommunications companies and through a State intervention in areas where commercial investment is not forthcoming.

The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie shows the extent of the State Intervention area, which is the subject of procurement.

The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have previously indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services. The commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2bn in upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high speed broadband services. This investment is expected to continue with further services being rolled out over the coming years, in the BLUE area on the High Speed Broadband Map. These services include fibre-to-the-cabinet, fibre-to-the-home, cable and fixed wireless services, which are comparable to services offered in other jurisdictions. The Department continues to monitor this commercial deployment 

The areas marked AMBER on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the target areas for the State Intervention. The procurement process to build a network in this area commenced in December 2015 and is ongoing.

The map provides information on a county by county basis with a breakdown of coverage across the townlands in every county. Members of the public can scroll through the map, enter their Eircode and see whether there premises is in a BLUE or AMBER area. The Department also has a dedicated mailbox for queries in relation to the map - broadband@dcenr.gov.ie

The Intervention Strategy available at http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/communications/en-ie/Pages/Publication/Ireland's-Broadband-Intervention-Strategy-update.aspx sets out a detailed service specification including a requirement that the State-funded network must be capable of delivering high-quality, high speed broadband of at least 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload, available 99.95% of the time.  Together with other detailed technical specifications, these will ensure that a reliable fast service is available to consumers. In addition to these requirements, bidder(s) will be asked to put forward:

- Minimum speeds for businesses;

- Proposals to future-proof the network to meet ongoing demand for bandwidth. To this end, the winning bidder(s) will be subject to period reviews on a 3-5 year basis.

- Minimum speeds for businesses;

I am satisfied that the speeds are sufficiently high to meet consumer demand, and any network build will have to be capable of scaling up to meet future demand. The 30mbps target will be minimum speed rather than a ceiling for consumers.

Over 750,000 premises are the focus for  the procurement process, which formally commenced in December 2015 with the publication of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire ( 'PQQ') and Project Information Memorandum. Five responses were received from prospective bidders to this stage of the competitive procurement process by the deadline of 31 March 2016. The second stage in the procurement process will be a formal invitation to Participate in Dialogue (ITPD) to qualifying bidders. I expect that my Department will move to this stage in the next month. The third stage of the procurement process involves the issue of final tender documentation which follows the dialogue process.  Following the submission of final tenders by bidders, a winning bidder(s) will be selected for the contract which will comprise one or two lots as set out in the NBP Intervention Strategy. The Department will then enter into formal contract negotiations with the winning bidder(s). It is expected that contract(s) will be awarded by June 2017.

As part of the competitive process, the Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best rollout strategy, in order to target areas of particularly poor service, business needs and-or high demand. This will need to be balanced with the most efficient network rollout plan. A prioritisation programme will be put in place in this regard, in consultation with the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. A detailed roll-out plan for the network will be published once contract(s) are in place.

The Programme for a Partnership Government commits also to measures to assist in the rollout of the network once a contract is awarded.  In this regard, Minister Humphreys will lead on the establishment of county or regional broadband taskforces, working with Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Offices, LEADER Groups and other relevant agencies to help accelerate the broadband network build in rural Ireland, once a contract(s) has been awarded.