Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 June 2015
842. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide in tabular form by county a breakdown of the current estimated spread and rate of high-speed broadband Internet access connectivity of households and businesses, of at least 30 Mbps; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23731/15]
View answerThe electronic communications market is a fully liberalised competitive market, regulated by the Commission for Communications Regulations (ComReg), which is independent in the exercise of its functions. ComReg gathers data from the competing electronic communications networks and services providers and publishes quarterly market data reports. The most recently published report, up to March 2015, reports there were1.7m broadband subscriptions of which almost 1.3m were fixed line subscriptions. Among fixed line subscribers, 48% or 611,000 approximately, subscribed to speeds of 30 Mbps or higher. This information is not further detailed on a regional basis by ComReg nor does my Department have access to the underlying data to calculate the distribution of these users on a county basis, as requested by the Deputy.
More generally I can confirm that next generation broadband networks have been rolled out, passing approximately 1.2m addresses to date in Ireland. A further 400,000 addresses are expected to be able to access at least one high speed network over the next 18 months. The remaining 700,000 premises in Ireland are the target for the proposed State intervention under the National Broadband Plan, subject to examination of any further commercial development plans.
I will forward details to the Deputy of the number of addresses passed to date per county, which relates specifically to eircom investment, but will also generally include the existing or planned footprint of other high speed broadband operators, including UPC and SIRO.
