Written answers

Tuesday, 16 January 2018

Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Broadband Service Provision

Photo of Michael McGrathMichael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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1300. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of homes and businesses in County Cork currently without high speed broadband; the number by geographic unit within the county; when he expects all of these homes and businesses to have access to high speed broadband; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1339/18]

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 67% of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland have access to high speed broadband and this is set to increase to 77% (1.8 million premises) by the end of 2018 and to 90% (2.1 million premises) by the end of 2020.

In April I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at . This 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 National Broadband Plan (NBP).

The Map is colour coded and searchable by address/eircode:

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

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

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

There are approximately 270,000 premises in Cork. Just under 75,000 (28%) fall within the AMBER area and will be covered under the State led Intervention. Approximately 173,000 (64%) of premises are in a BLUE area and are, or will be, covered by commercial providers, while nearly 21,000 (8%) are LIGHT BLUE and fall to be covered by eir's planned rural deployment. A document containing a townland by townland breakdown of premises into these three categories is attached. Individuals can visit my Department’s website and input their eircode to find out which category their premises falls under.

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. “Detailed Solutions” submitted by two bidders last September are being evaluated by the NBP specialist team. This is the last stage of the procurement process before moving to the final tender stage which will be followed by the appointment of a preferred bidder(s) and contract signature.

In April 2017, I signed a Commitment Agreement with eir in relation to its plans to provide High speed broadband to 300,000 premises in rural areas on a commercial basis. eir has committed to completing the rollout by the end of 2018.  Information on eir's planned rural deployment, including timelines, is available at . A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department’s website www.dccae.gov.ie.

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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