Written answers
Wednesday, 17 January 2018
Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
National Broadband Plan Implementation
Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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157. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the national broadband plan formal procurement process has now been completed in respect of roll-out to a location (details supplied); the timeframe within which a broadband upgrade will be provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter [2220/18]
Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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158. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the national broadband plan formal procurement process has now been completed in respect of roll-out to a location (details supplied); the timeframe within which a broadband upgrade will be provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2221/18]
Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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159. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the national broadband plan formal procurement process has now been completed in respect of roll-out to a location (details supplied); the timeframe within which a broadband upgrade will be provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2222/18]
Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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160. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the national broadband plan formal procurement process has now been completed in respect of roll-out to locations (details supplied); the timeframe within which a broadband upgrade will be provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2223/18]
Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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161. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the national broadband plan formal procurement process has now been completed in respect of roll-out to locations (details supplied); the timeframe within which a broadband upgrade will be provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2224/18]
Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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162. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the national broadband plan formal procurement process has now been completed in respect of roll-out to locations (details supplied); the timeframe within which a broadband upgrade will be provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2225/18]
Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 157 to 162, inclusive, together.
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 2.3m 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 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.
The following table sets out the number of premises which fall into each category in the various townlands/areas referenced in the Questions. Individuals can themselves check whether their premises are in an AMBER, BLUE or LIGHT BLUE area by accessing the High Speed Broadband Map and entering their eircode at .
| Townland | Premises within the NBP Intervention Area: AMBER | Premises within Commercial Operator’s Area: BLUE | Premises within eir's planned rural deployment: LIGHT BLUE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bareen/Balraheen | 9 (100%) | ||
| Turnings | 7 (100%) | ||
| Knockanally | 40 (100%) | ||
| Newtown | 67 (26%) | 187 (74%) | |
| Ballyoulster | 2 (2%) | 87 (98%) | |
| Killeenlea | 5 (21%) | 16 (67%) | 3 (13%) |
| Ballycaghan | 1 (2%) | 1 (2%) | 48 (96%)* |
| Cappagh | 56 (86%) | 7 (11%) | 2 (3%) |
| Killbrook | 17 (40%) | 25 (60%) | |
| Kilmore | 44 (92%) | 3 (6%) | 1 (2%) |
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 on 26th 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.
My Department will engage with the winning bidder(s) to ensure the most efficient deployment as part of the contract.
In respect of eir's commitment to provide High speed broadband to 300,000 premises in rural areas by end 2018, my Department confirmed eir had passed 101,000 as of September 2017. This includes 5,031 premises passed in Kildare alone since the start of the rollout.
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