Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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163. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the extent to which the quality of mobile telephone services can be improved nationwide in both urban and rural areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44360/21]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The provision of telecommunication services, including mobile phone and broadband services, is a matter for the relevant service providers operating in a fully liberalised market regulated by the Commission for Communication Regulation (ComReg), as independent Regulator.Obligations in relation to mobile coverage are set out in licences granted by Comreg to the mobile operators and ComReg advises that the current minimum coverage obligations are being exceeded considerably by all operators.  ComReg is currently managing the next spectrum award process for wireless broadband services and commissioned studies and technical reports to inform its approach to the award process and the consideration of appropriate coverage and rollout obligations in that context.  These studies are available at www.comreg.ie

In relation to mobile coverage, ComReg has developed a national outdoor coverage map (available at coveragemap.comreg.ie/map), which can help consumers choose the network provider that best meets their needs for where they live, work and travel. ComReg has also published the results of tests carried out on mobile/smartphone handsets currently available in Ireland (available at www.comreg.ie/publication/mobile-handset-performance-data). These findings will further allow consumers to make informed decisions based on the handsets which best address their needs.

A combination of commercial investment and State led intervention will ensure access to high speed broadband in every part of the country no matter how remote. Of the 2.4 million premises across Ireland, 77% of premises now have access to high-speed broadband of more than 30 Mbps. The National Broadband Plan will address the remaining premises and will provide a high speed and future proofed broadband network within the Intervention Area which covers 1.1 million people living and working in over 544,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools. The NBP network will offer users a high speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 500Mbps from the outset. A number of commercial operators have also announced further investment plans in high-speed broadband. Eir has said it will roll out fibre to a further 1.6 million premises, bringing its fibre deployment to more than 1.9 million premises. SIRO is currently completing the first phase of its fibre deployment which will see 375,000 premises passed with gigabit services. Virgin Media is offering 250Mbps as a standard offering with higher speeds available to many of its customers across more than 1 million premises. Many other network operators and telecom service providers across the State also continue to invest in their networks.

The most recent Quarterly Key Data Report Q2, 2021 published by ComReg reported that fixed broadband subscriptions increased to 1.55 million, a 0.8% increase this quarter and an increase of 4.0% when compared to Q2 2020. Of these, over 308,000 were fibre-to the-premises (FTTP) subscriptions representing 19.9% of total fixed broadband subscriptions in Q2 2021, up from 13.5% in Q2 2020.