Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 May 2013
468. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No. 407 of 14 May 2013, if statistics exist in relation to the percentage of residents in County Louth who currently have access to 30 MBps, 50MBps and 100MBps broadband respectively; and if he will provide those figures. [24210/13]
View answer469. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No. 407 of 14 may 2013, if all residents in an electoral division (details supplied) now have access to 30MBps broadband at a minimum; the percentage of residents that have access to such broadband services; the steps that have been taken by the national broadband scheme and the rural broadband scheme in relation to broadband availability in that electoral division; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24211/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 468 and 469 together.
Further to my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 407 of 14 May last, broadband services under the National Broadband Scheme (NBS) are available to all fixed premises located in Creggan Upper ED in County Louth. The Scheme offers a basic broadband service, in line with EU State aid clearance, to fixed residences and businesses located within certain designated rural areas. Under the terms of the contract which my Department has in place with “3”, the NBS service provider, the NBS mobile wireless service is required to offer minimum download and upload speeds of 2.3Mbps and 1.4Mbps respectively, subject to a maximum contention ratio of 18:1. The NBS satellite service, which is utilised in a small number of cases for technical reasons associated with the location of the premises, offers minimum download and upload speeds of 3.6Mbps and 384 kbps respectively, subject to a maximum contention ratio of 48:1.
The Rural Broadband Scheme (RBS) was launched in 2011 in recognition of the fact that despite the widespread availability of broadband throughout Ireland, there still remained individual premises that were unable to receive broadband provision. This Scheme was aimed at making a basic broadband service available to un-served premises in rural areas, not already covered by the NBS. Commercial service providers were in a position to offer services to all applicants from County Louth under the Scheme who agreed to engage with them.
Details of the service providers who operate in County Louth can be found on ComReg’s website at www.callcosts.ie, while more detailed information on the broadband products offered by these service providers should be available on their respective websites.
I also referred in my response to Parliamentary Question No. 407 of 14 May last to the formal mapping exercise being undertaken by my Department. This exercise is designed to identify the areas of the country to be targeted in the State-led investment under the Government’s National Broadband Plan to ensure the provision of high speed broadband services where the commercial market will not deliver. When complete, this exercise will present details of the extent of the availability of high speed broadband services throughout the country, including the situation pertaining to County Louth.
