Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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625. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on a recent ComReg publication (details supplied) and the finding that only 7,623 premises are connected with fibre to the home broadband technology, FTTH; and if the new national broadband plan will ensure all premises covered by the plan have FTTH download speeds. [16560/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed broadband services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment by the telecommunications sector and a State intervention in those areas where commercial investment has not been fully demonstrated.

A key principle of the NBP is to support and stimulate commercial investment through policy and regulatory measures. Commercial investment since the publication of the NBP, including over the last 12 months has considerably exceeded expectations. To date, the commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2.5bn in upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high speed broadband and mobile telecoms services.

There has been significant progress in relation to broadband rollout so that today, approximately 1.4m or 61% of premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband of a minimum of 30 Megabits per second. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector, which is continuing to expand this footprint.

The latest ComReg quarterly report highlights that over 65% of all broadband customers now avail of high speed broadband services ( > 30 Megabits per second). It also indicates that uptake over the past quarter includes an increase in customers availing of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) of over 20.2%. While this represents only 7,623 premises, this is a large increase over a short period and is a very encouraging indicator of the popularity of FTTP products. It also indicates that the commercial sector is moving towards FTTP as the solution of the foreseeable future.

Today the 4th April, I formally published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The updated Map shows the following categories of areas for delivery of broadband:

- The BLUE areas represent those areas where commercial telecommunications providers are either currently delivering or have indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services,

- The AMBER areas on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the areas that will require State Intervention and are the subject of the current procurement process.

It is intended that all premises will have access to services of at least 30 Megabits per second when the procurement process is completed and the network rolled out.

Individuals can check whether their premises is in a BLUE or an AMBER area by accessing the High Speed Broadband Map and entering their Eircode.

With the publication of the updated High Speed Broadband Map the State Intervention Area has now been finalised.

A formal procurement process is in train to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network within the State Intervention Area.

The procurement process is being intensively managed, to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland, for at least 25 years. Intensive dialogue with bidders is continuing and the three bidders have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution. This provides for a future proofed solution for the 25 years of the contract and beyond. A fibre-to-the-home solution means that householders and businesses may get speeds not just of 30 Megabits per second but much higher, potentially up to 1000 Megabits per second.

The timeframe for the procurement continues to be dependent on a range of factors including the complexities that may be encountered by the procurement team and bidders, during the procurement process. During the Department's extensive stakeholder consultations in 2015, telecommunications service providers indicated a 3-5 year timeline to rollout a network of the scale envisaged under the NBP.

In the short-term I am working to ensure measures are put in place to assist in the rollout of the NBP State Intervention network once a contract is awarded and to improve mobile phone and broadband access in Ireland.