Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 February 2014
108. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the options available to a person (details supplied) in County Mayo who faces extra charges as part of the national broadband service; his plans to broaden the remit assigned to Hutchison 3G regarding the options available to NBS customers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5862/14]
View answerThe broadband service contracted under National Broadband Scheme (NBS) is a basic, affordable, scalable product in keeping with EU State Aid clearance for the Scheme in September 2007. Under the terms of the contract which my Department has in place with Hutchison 3G Ireland Ltd (H3GI), the NBS service provider, the NBS mobile wireless service currently offers 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 monthly data allowance for the NBS mobile broadband service was increased from 25GB to 40GB in October 2012 at no additional cost to the subscriber. This data allowance of 40GB compares favourably with data allowances offered on other basic mobile broadband packages. If a customer wishes to use more than their 40GB allowance there is a charge of €0.0508/mb on all additional data.
The NBS contract allows H3GI to introduce new retail services, in addition to the guaranteed Minimum Specification Retail Service in NBS areas, subject to certain contractual obligations. It is a commercial decision for H3GI as to whether they wish to introduce such products and services. To date, no application from H3GI for additional services has been received by my Department.
