Written answers

Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Broadband Service Provision

Photo of Michael McGrathMichael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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508. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the expected roll-out of broadband under the national broadband plan to homes at a location (details supplied) in County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49872/17]

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure high speed broadband access (minimum 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location.  The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector so that today over 65% of the 2.3m premises in Ireland have access to high speed broadband and this is set to increase to 77% (1.8m premises) by the end of 2018 and to 90% (2.1m premises) by the end of 2020.

In April of this year, I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie.  The map shows the areas targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the NBP.  The Map is searchable by Eircode/address and is colour coded:

- AMBER areas represent the target areas for the proposed State led Intervention under the NBP and are the subject of an ongoing procurement process.

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

- Light BLUE areas represent eir's commercial rural deployment plans to roll out high speed broadband to 300,000 premises by the end of 2018 as part of an Agreement signed with me in April.

The map shows that there are 140 premises in the townland of Fountainstown, County Cork, of which 137 fall within the AMBER area and will require State Intervention. The remaining 3 premises fall within the BLUE area and will be covered by commercial operators.  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 is in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll out a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. That procurement process is now at an advanced stage. The “Detailed Solutions” submitted by two bidders on 26th September are being evaluated by the NBP specialist team. The next stage in the procurement process is the receipt of final tenders followed by the appointment of a preferred bidder(s) and contract signature.  As part of this procurement process, the bidder(s) will be required to submit their strategies, including timescales and plans to priority areas, for the network build and rollout.

I recognise the importance of availability of high speed connectivity for all premises in Ireland and the frustration for communities that do not currently have access to this level of connectivity.  Delivering connectivity to the 542,000 premises (including the 137 premises in Fountainstown) that fall within the State led intervention under the NBP remains a Government priority and my Department will engage with the winning bidder(s) to ensure the most efficient deployment as part of the contract.

In the interim, practical initiatives will continue to be addressed through the work of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce to address obstacles and improve connectivity in respect of existing and future mobile phone and broadband services.

Under this Taskforce, engagement between telecommunications operators and local authorities through the Broadband Officers is continuing to strengthen.  These Broadband Officers are acting as single points of contact in local authorities for their communities.  The appointment of these officers is already reaping rewards in terms of ensuring a much greater degree of consistency in engagements with operators and clearing obstacles to developing infrastructure.  There is a link to a list of these local Broadband Officers on my Department's website.

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