Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 March 2010
58 Deputy Kathleen Lynch asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the position regarding the timeframe for setting up initiatives to analyse broadband speeds experienced by end users here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10131/10]
View answerI support proposals to conduct an audit of the quality of service experienced by broadband service customers compared to the quality of service advertised by suppliers. Ideally, this study would be conducted in a manner which would also permit international comparisons.
In June 2009 the European Commission published an invitation to tender for a contract to conduct a study and prepare a report on the quality of broadband services available to customers in the European Union. The emphasis of this study, as proposed, was on measuring real time customer experience across the European Union compared to the speeds and other quality of service parameters advertised by broadband service providers.
In January last, the European Commission announced that following a thorough assessment of the eight bids it had received, it had decided that none provided sufficient guarantees that reliable robust data would be obtained. The Commission therefore decided to close the tender process without awarding a contract. In its announcement, the Commission also indicated it may recommence this procurement procedure.
Following informal contacts between my Department and the European Commission on its likely plans to re-tender and the likely duration of the study after the award of any contract, which would be expected to be nine months or more, I have decided to commence a study of broadband speeds available to customers in Ireland independently of the proposed wider EU study. My Department has commenced drafting an invitation to tender document. The formal invitation to participate and the contract award process will accord with competitive public procurement arrangements. I expect the tender document to be available to participating parties shortly.
My heart sank when I heard it would take at least nine months for the European Union to award a contract. For this reason, I welcome the Minister's decision to proceed with a tender process. The Minister indicated a tender document would be available shortly. Will he specify exactly when he expects the proposed initiative to proceed?
I presume the Minister is well aware of the serious problem we have with slow connections. Numerous reports have pointed out that Ireland's broadband performance is dismal in comparison with that of other countries. We have the highest percentage of slow Internet connections in Europe and rank fifth lowest for high speed connections. Ireland will not be able to compete unless we get our act together on broadband speeds.
The Minister should examine his own advice before developing an initiative. Until recently, he advised Deputies to visit the website www.broadband.gov.ie for information on operators. If one were to do so, one would find that 75% of the listed suppliers no longer exist. That is a shoddy performance.
We must address the issue of broadband speed. With regard to the assessment of the slow speed of broadband services in Ireland, how does the Minister propose to address this issue in parallel with ascertaining how bad the position is?
We are addressing the issue through a range of measures, including investments in 100 megabit connectivity in schools, Project Kelvin, a high speed connection between North America and Ireland, and the exemplar network which creates potential to overcome the slow spot in the Internet, namely, the choke point at switching equipment. We are making a number of investments which provide an opportunity to speed up the networks. Before doing so, however, we must first find out what are current broadband speeds. I expect the tendering process to award a contract for carrying out this task will take place within the next two or three weeks.
I look forward to the publication of broadband speeds because I believe it will confirm recent OECD findings that Ireland is one of the fastest improving countries in the area of broadband. I acknowledge that we are coming from behind and need to do more, but Ireland is in the top three or four OECD countries as regards catching up and becoming faster on the Internet.
At least we finally have some acknowledgement from the Minister that there is a problem with speeds. Every time he is questioned about broadband, he starts reeling off penetration figures. They are impressive but all they suggest is that people want broadband. Unfortunately, however, they have to use second-rate broadband by and large. Deputy Kathleen Lynch's question concerns how we measure progress in terms of doing what is most important in broadband, which is to provide lots of bandwidth quickly so that Ireland can try to catch up with other countries that are moving ahead in this area. As regards the State's broadband infrastructure, can the Minister give us a date for the one-stop-shop? That question was already asked by Deputy Coonan.
The first thing we have to do is pass the legislation tomorrow. That is the first crucial date and, as I said in my reply, we must proceed with the one-stop-shop this year. While I acknowledge that we have been behind, one of the primary reasons was that we had a series of ownerships in Eircom that took a short-term position, which was not investing in the networks. It seems to me that over a number of years it was extracting as much value out of the company as possible. I have high expectations that the new ownership, STT — which comes from a country where they have invested in very high-speed broadband and which has a telecoms company with the latest network technology there — will transfer some of that expertise and know-how into the network here to get value back on its investment. That is a crucial development I am looking at this year in order to increase speeds. What will incentivise it is the development by the cable network of DOCSIS 3 technology on that cable network, which will bring quicker broadband speeds to tens of thousands of houses this year and next year. It is that competition, as well as the prospect of fourth generation mobile, Wymex, new satellite technology or evolving fixed-wireless technology, which will allow speeds to double. They are doing so. It is a key requirement for us to keep pushing various companies to make investments, which will see customers getting the benefit of faster speeds. That can and will happen.
Will the Minister ensure that companies do not get away with making misleading claims? Companies often promise speeds up to a certain level, which is pretty meaningless because most of the time they are way below that. The website, which is the Minister's responsibility, is currently under construction. Will he acknowledge, however, that it does not look good for such a website not to be up to date? I know we are concentrating on speed, but even with a national broadband scheme 12,000 households will still not have broadband services at all. The Minister must deal with this, so has he come up with a solution to provide those households with broadband? If not, they will be at a great disadvantage. It is not as if they can wait a while and expect to get broadband, because even after that scheme is completed they will not have broadband.
I have raised the issue of open access to ducting with the Minister before and he said he was considering it. What conclusion has he drawn as to whether we should be regulating to require open access to ductings so that people can lay fibre to deliver high bandwidth, high-speed broadband into people's homes and businesses?
As I said to Deputy Coonan earlier, that is why we went to Brussels and got EU state aid approval for a new, additional rural scheme which will require us to provide alternatives for those 12,000 houses.
We were dissatisfied with the quality of information on the website and that is why I took it down. Companies were not providing sufficiently up-to-date information. ComReg does provide a website which has the same or similar information, so I am satisfied to direct people to it.
That is hardly open access.
Open access is the concept with the one-stop-shop. That ducting is to provide it on an open access basis. It is up to the regulator to try to pursue and promote open access in other key network infrastructure and that is happening.
The regulator needs policy guidance from the Minister.
I gave very clear policy guidance and in the last few weeks the outcome has been — as was raised in the last session of oral questions — that the arrangement saw a drop in line-share costs of approximately 80% to 90%. Further decisions are being made about unbundling the network, which is happening. The reality therefore is that companies are starting to see the wisdom of a more open access policy. It is the way to get an economic return on difficult investments, which is what we must now see happening.
Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.
