Written answers

Tuesday, 27 June 2017

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

National Broadband Plan Implementation

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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474. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of houses which have been connected to high-speed broadband under the terms of the agreement signed with a company (details supplied) in April 2017; and the counties in which these houses have been connected. [29977/17]

Photo of Robert TroyRobert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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476. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to improve the broadband service in an area (details supplied). [30049/17]

Photo of Robert TroyRobert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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480. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No. 1778 of 20 June 2017, his plans to extend the initial roll-out of fibre broadband in Knockaville, Mullingar, County Westmeath. [30104/17]

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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485. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the progress to date in 2017 in the provision of effective, efficient, state-of-the-art broadband in all areas throughout the country; if he is satisfied that the progress to date is in keeping with expectations. [30150/17]

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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486. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources , in the context of broadband provision in all areas of the country, the extent to which he expects to be in a position to ensure the availability of high-quality service in fringe areas not covered by the service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30151/17]

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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494. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the extent to which the standard, quality and speed of broadband and mobile telephone services in County Kildare compare with the best available worldwide; his plans to improve same over the coming year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30159/17]

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 474, 476, 480, 485, 486 and 494 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. 

Since 2012, the commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2.5 billion in upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high-speed broadband and mobile telecoms services.  As a result, there has been significant progress in relation to broadband rollout so that today approximately 1.4 million 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 new high-speed broadband infrastructure to 300,000 premises in rural areas.  Eir has committed to doing this work over a 90 week period, an average of 500 premises passed per day.  In line with the published Agreement there are regular Review Meetings, the purpose of which is to monitor this rollout and ensure that eir meets its obligations under the Agreement.  A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my website, www.dccae.gov.ie

Quarterly updates on progress of the eir 300k rollout will be published on the Department's website.  The Q1 figures have been verified by my Department and 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 30,064 premises have been passed. As at Q1, 40,114 premises have been passed since eir commenced work in late 2016.  To date, some 3,865 of those premises have been connected to high-speed broadband services under the terms of the Commitment Agreement. Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at .

In April I published an updated High-Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie.  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 map shows that 2% of the townland of Abbeylara, County Longford  and 100% of Knockaville, County Westmeath falls within an AMBER area and will be part of the State-led Intervention under the NBP.  The remaining 98% of the townland of Abbeylara falls within the BLUE area and will be served by commercial operators.

There are circa 89,000 premises in County Kildare, approximately 13,000 (14%) of which are located in the Amber area on the Map, and will benefit from the NBP’s State Intervention.  The remaining circa 76,000 (75%) premises are located in the commercial BLUE area and will be served by commercial operators and includes approximately 9,000 (12%)  where eir is planning to deliver high-speed broadband by 2018.

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 at www.broadband.gov.ie.

My Department monitors the rollout of services in the BLUE area. I would encourage consumers who cannot access high-speed broadband services to contact my Department directly at broadband@dccae.gov.ie, quoting their address and Eircode, and giving details of providers they have contacted with a view to obtaining services.  This information will assist the Department in keeping track of progress in those areas and following up if necessary.

The Broadband Intervention strategy 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 30 megabits per second download and 6 megabits per second upload to all citizens;

- be capable of providing for higher performance in the future so as to keep pace with consumer demand;

- ensure the availability of high quality wholesale services to allow retail competition to develop.

The Plan envisages public investment in the capital costs of building the necessary infrastructure to support high-quality affordable broadband services similar to those already available in cities and towns.

I am confident that the combination of existing commercial investment and the State intervention will make Ireland an exemplar in Europe and beyond, in terms of providing high-speed services to all citizens regardless of where they live or work.

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.  The finalisation of the State Intervention Area for the procurement process is an important milestone as it means that bidders can progress their business plans and the Department can move to the next stage of the procurement.  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. 

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 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 to 5 year timeline to roll out a network of the scale envisaged under the NBP once contracts are in place.

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 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.

However, I am aware that 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 3.6 GHz 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 nine 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.

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