I propose to take Questions Nos. 70, 98, 125, 140, 141 and 145 together.
Up to early 2003 the telecommunications market, although fully liberalised, had been slow to invest in the necessary infrastructure to keep pace with the demand for broadband. In March 2002 the Government set out its aim of placing Ireland within the top 10% of OECD countries for broadband connectivity within three years.
Recognising that the lack of high-speed infrastructure would deny us that goal, the Government set aside an indicative €200 million under the NDP for infrastructure developments that would enable the provision of services by the private sector. The creation of high-capacity backbone infrastructure and metropolitan area networks, MANs, are the cornerstones of the programme. Some 19 MANs have been completed and seven more are under construction.
In the next phase of the programme broadband networks will be rolled out in more than 90 towns with a population of 1,500 or more. The MANs are being managed for the State on an open access basis and offer private sector telecommunications providers wholesale rates for band width that are on a par with the best available in Europe. The group broadband scheme, introduced by my Department earlier this year, enables smaller towns and rural communities to come together with the service providers and, with funding assistance of up to 55% from my Department, obtain broadband connectivity using the most suitable technology. Considerable interest is being shown in the scheme with applications submitted by more than 50 communities to date.
The availability of broadband is increasing. Telecommunications companies are vigorously marketing digital subscriber line, DSL, broadband in all areas, while other broadband technologies such as satellite, wireless and cable are all growing in popularity. The number of broadband customers is growing by more than 30% per quarter and has increased 80-fold in the past year to over 105,000 customers today.
Other countries are also actively pushing the broadband agenda and that will make our targets more difficult to reach. However, we have seen significant progress in 2004 in terms of increased broadband penetration and I am satisfied that the conditions are in place to see this rate of progress sustained through 2005.