Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 March 2013
363. Deputy Ciara Conway asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will clarify the reason all of County Waterford, with particular reference to places including Faithlegg, Cheekpoint and Tramore, is not covered by the national broadband scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15292/13]
View answerIreland’s telecommunications market has been fully liberalised since 1999 in accordance with the requirements of binding EU Directives. The market has since developed into a well-regulated market, supporting a multiplicity of commercial operators, providing services over a diverse range of technology platforms. Details of broadband services available in each County, including County Waterford, can be found on ComReg website at www.callcosts.ie.
The State can only intervene to ensure access to broadband services in areas where the competitive market has failed to deliver such services, as in the case of the National Broadband Scheme (NBS) and the Rural Broadband Scheme. Under the NBS, broadband services are available since October 2010 from the NBS service provider, “3”, to persons with a fixed residence or fixed business in each of the 1,028 Electoral Divisions (ED) designated to be covered under the Scheme. This includes 31 of the 130 EDs in County Waterford, details of which are available on my Department’s website.
EU State Aid and competition rules govern how States can intervene in areas in which existing service providers are operating. Accordingly, the NBS is prohibited from providing a service in served areas where to do so would give rise to an unacceptable level of market distortion. Prior to the commencement of the NBS, a detailed mapping exercise was carried out to determine those areas that would be included in the Scheme and those which, by virtue of being already substantially served by existing broadband suppliers, could not be included. That mapping exercise found that the areas of Faithlegg, Cheekpoint and Tramore, County Waterford, were served by existing service providers and consequently were excluded from the Scheme.
With basic broadband services widely available across Ireland, the focus is now on accelerating the roll out of high speed services. The Government’s National Broadband Plan, which I published in August last, aims to radically change the broadband landscape in Ireland by ensuring that high speed services of at least 30 Mbps are available to all of our citizens and businesses, well in advance of the EU’s target date of 2020, and that significantly higher speeds are available to as many homes and businesses as possible.
During the preparation of Ireland’s National Broadband Plan, the commercial market operators indicated that they expect to provide 70 Mbps to 100 Mbps services to 50% of the population by 2015. Since the publication of the Plan, investments by the commercial sector are underway in both fixed line and mobile high speed broadband services, particularly in urban and semi-urban areas.
The Government is also committed in the Plan to investing in areas where high speed services are not commercially viable and will not be provided by the market. In an important milestone towards delivery of this commitment in the Plan, the Government recently launched a tender for experts to assist in the design, planning and procurement of the State-led investment. Intensive technical, financial and legal preparations including stakeholder engagement will be ongoing throughout 2013 with a view to the launch of a procurement process in 2014.
Through the implementation of the National Broadband Plan, we are committed to increasing the availability of next generation speeds significantly, with a view to ensuring that all citizens and business can participate fully in a digitally enabled society.
I would reiterate that the Government remains committed to ensuring that all parts of Ireland, including all of County Waterford, will have at least 30 Mbps connectivity, through public or private sector investment, as outlined in the National Broadband Plan.
