Denis Naughten
Question:90 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the action she intends to take to address the broadband deficit in the BMW region; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10727/02]
Written Answers. - Telecommunications Services.
Under the National Development Plan 2000-06, a provision of €200 million is available to support the communications and e-commerce measure. A first call for proposals was conducted in 2000 and on foot of submissions received, nine contracts were signed at the beginning of 2001. These contracts will result in additional investment in the regions in broadband infrastructure. These include delivery of service in the BMW region by Chorus, ESBT, ESAT, Crossan Cable and Nevadatele.
The Chorus project proposes a BMW broadband communications corridor to provide broadband access to the north midlands and north Connacht. The ESBT project proposes to install a national 48-fibre optic network, encompassing BMW towns. The Esat project will install broadband wireless local loop base stations in five regional towns throughout the BMW. The Crossan project will provide Longford town with a broadband communications infrastructure offering Internet access and other e-commerce and digital services. The Nevadatele project will develop four "points of presence" in the west, in Carrick-on-Shannon, Sligo, Castlebar, and Galway.
There were 31 submissions received under the second call for proposals on the 19 October 2002. These submissions were independently evaluated and the results of the evaluation were finalised at the beginning of this year.
On foot of the evaluation a number of local and regional authorities have been asked to enter procurement to establish firm prices for their proposals. Once procurement is completed, and subject to satisfactory pricing, contracts will be offered for these projects. It is anticipated that this will take place in the next two months. These proposals involve the construction of metro area fibre optic networks in 19 towns around the country, 13 of which are in the BMW region. Networks in other towns are under discussion with the relevant local authorities.
Arising from the Government strategy which I announced on March 8 last a second phase of 48 additional towns will be pursued through a public-private partnership model. Phase (i) and Phase (ii) encompass 67 towns throughout the country, 30 of which are in the BMW region. Phase (iii) will involve rolling out the programme to cover all 123 towns in the State with a population of more than 1,500.