Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

188. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to avail of the European Commission’s programme under the WiFi4EU scheme to promote free Wi-Fi connectivity for EU citizens and visitors in public spaces and in particular for County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29260/17]

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

The Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulations (EU) No 1316/2013 and (EU) No 283/2014 as regards the promotion of Internet connectivity in local communities - COM(2016)589 was agreed at political level on 29 May 2017. Known as "WIFI4EU", the proposal announced by the European Commission in September 2016, is designed to provide a limited number of public Wi-Fi hotspots in public spaces such as parks, squares, libraries, and some public buildings.

Importantly, it is proposed that hotspots will rest on existing backhaul provided by public entities defined as municipalities, grouping of municipalities, and other local public authorities and institutions, libraries and hospitals. While these hotspots will provide additional connectivity, they are not designed to fill in broadband coverage gaps, or replace mobile phone services. They will, however, offer additional flexibility for internet connectivity in certain public areas for citizens. By stimulating integration with existing public services, the initiative will assist in promoting public interest in high capacity internet services and will contribute to the take-up of broadband services and also to the development of public infrastructure and digital inclusion. 

The total amount available for the project across all EU Member States will amount to €120 million under the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding mechanism, which will be administered in a series of tranches over a period of three years. The total amount should result in approximately 6,000 – 8,000 local communities across the EU receiving hotspots at an approximate cost of €20,000 per hotspot. The first call for proposals amounting to €20 million is likely to be launched in late 2017, although no date is yet confirmed.

Details of the exact administrative process for applicants, are yet to be decided at technical level, and details of arrangements will be announced in due course by the European Commission.  It is known, however, that the hotspots will be paid for through a voucher scheme. The European Commission is working closely with EU Member States including Ireland to determine the logistics of the eventual process. It is not known how many hotspots Ireland will receive overall. However, the principle of geographical balance across Member States will apply so that Ireland should receive a proportionate share. 

The potential applicants in Ireland’s case will likely include local authorities, with any local authority eligible to apply as long as their application fulfils the conditions set by the European Commission.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

189. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the timeframe for the rollout of at least 30mb broadband speeds to a location (details supplied) in County Donegal as part of the national broadband plan; if such areas with poor or no broadband coverage shall be prioritised during the rollout phase as part of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29278/17]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

192. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the date for the rollout of high speed broadband for Elm Grove, Sallybrook, Glanmire, County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29409/17]

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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 189 and 192 together.

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 has considerably exceeded expectations. As a result, the NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector so that 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 and today, approximately 1.4m or 61% of premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband of a minimum of 30 Megabits per second. This footprint is continuing to expand. 

In April, eir signed an agreement with me committing them to follow through on their commercial plans to provide broadband to 300,000 premises in rural areas.  Eir has committed to doing this work over a 90 week period, with an average of 500 premises passed per day.  My Department will be monitoring this rollout to ensure that eir meets its obligations under the Agreement.  A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my website .

Quarterly updates on progress of the eir 300k rollout will be published on the Departments website.  The Q1 figures have been verified by my Department and I am pleased to announce that the eir rollout is in line with the Commitment Agreement.  My Department has informed me that in the period from 1 January to end March 2017 over 30,000 premises have been passed. This brings to over 40,000  the total subset of the 300k premises that eir has passed since they commenced work in late 2016.

The decision by eir to invest in infrastructure to deploy high speed broadband services to an additional 300,000 premises in rural Ireland was taken by eir on commercial grounds. Neither I nor the Department have a statutory authority to direct eir in this regard.

In April I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at . This map finalises the State Intervention Area for the procurement process and is an important milestone in the procurement process. The Map shows the extent of  the State Intervention area and also the areas targeted for commercial services.

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.

The following table details percentage of  premises  to be covered by the State Intervention and through commercial investment in the areas identified by the  Deputies.

There are approximately 2.3m premises covering Ireland’s 26 counties, of which approximately 542,000 (23%) premises are located in the AMBER area on the Map.  These premises will require State intervention and are the focus for the State Intervention procurement process. The remaining 1.8m  premises are located in the BLUE areas and will be/are served by commercial operators. Of the 1.8m premises, 1.4m are already within a high speed broadband area and a further 300,000 premises fall within eir’s plans to deliver rural high speed broadband between now and end 2018 (Light BLUE on map).  Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at  .

My Departments High Speed Broadband map . provides information on a county by county basis with a breakdown of coverage across the townlands in every county.  Individuals can themselves check whether their premises is in a BLUE or an AMBER area by accessing the High Speed Broadband Map and entering their Eircode.

In relation to the State Intervention; this is intended to ensure high speed broadband is made available to premises and businesses in the areas where commercial investment has not materialised. My Department is running a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network within the State Intervention Area. The State Intervention network will be a wholesale network and retail service providers will be able to use the network to provide enhanced broadband services to their customers. 

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. The  three bidders have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution. 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.

With the finalisation of the map and following extensive dialogue with bidders, the procurement is progressing to the next stage. This week, the Department wrote to the three bidders in the NBP procurement process inviting them to submit their “Detailed Solutions” by 26 September 2017. This is a significant milestone as the NBP procurement process moves to the next stage.

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, once contracts are in place.

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.

The rate of demand for data services has increased exponentially in the last four years and this presents a continuing challenge for telecommunication operators, regulators and policy makers both in Ireland and internationally. Recognising this challenge, I specifically included in the Programme for Government a commitment to a Mobile Phone and Broadband Task force. In July 2016, I established the Task Force together with Minister Humphreys to identify immediate solutions to broadband and mobile phone coverage deficits and investigate how better services could be provided to consumers, prior to the full build and roll-out of the network planned under the National Broadband Plan State intervention. The report of the Task Force was published in December and is available on both Departments' websites

In producing this report, the Task Force worked with Departments, local authorities, ComReg, State agencies, the telecoms industry and other key stakeholders. The report contains 40 actions that will alleviate some of the telecommunications deficits across Ireland and the implementation programme on mobile phone and broadband access identifies 19 of these actions as areas where immediate and direct action by Departments and State agencies can ensure accelerated benefits to consumers.

In order to maintain momentum created by the Task Force, I, together with Minister Humphreys, established an Implementation Group. This group is driving and monitoring the implementation of the actions, bringing together all key stakeholders identified in the Task Force report with responsibility for delivery. This group will be formally reporting every 90 days on progress made on all actions.  I published the first such quarterly progress report on 13th June 2017, which is available on my Department's website  at and which shows that considerable progress has been made, particularly in relation to the implementation of actions identified for Q1 2017.

The work of the Task Force will also assist local authorities in preparing for the roll-out of the new NBP network once contracts are in place.

In addition, following regulations which I signed last year, ComReg recently announced the results of its auction for the 3.6GHz radio spectrum band, which means an 86% increase in spectrum capacity to meet the growing demand for mobile and wireless broadband services across rural and urban areas. The Regulator has awarded 15 year licences for the rights of use in this band which will provide a degree of stability and create future investment certainty. Spectrum was also awarded in lots covering 9 urban and rural regions across the country.

In my Department's Estimates for 2017, I have secured an €8 million provision for RTE to allow it to free up the 700 MHz spectrum band. ComReg in turn will make plans to allocate this spectrum to provide for significantly enhanced mobile coverage. The 700 MHz band is particularly suited to rural environments where the signal can travel long distances.

These initiatives should assist in enhancing the quality of mobile phone and data services across Ireland and particularly in rural Ireland.