Broadband Service Provision

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 June 2015

Tuesday, 30 June 2015

Questions (659)

Michael Colreavy

Question:

659. Deputy Michael Colreavy asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if the element of the national broadband plan that requires State intervention is likely to reduce significantly following Eircom’s announcement to roll-out fibre broadband to 300,000 premises which had been included in his Department’s national broadband plan, given that Eircom had participated in the national broadband plan mapping exercise within the past year which had agreed that these 300,000 premises were not likely to benefit from commercially-driven broadband investment; and his views on successive announcements by Eircom to deliver fibre to the home over recent months, totalling some 800,000 homes since autumn 2014, when as of June 2015 only about 150 of those homes have actually been connected with fibre by Eircom. [25931/15]

Written answers

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

The aim of the National Broadband Plan is to ensure that all premises will have access to high speed broadband, whether through commercial investment or a State funded intervention. Last November I published a national high speed coverage map for 2016. The map identifies detailed information on over 50,000 townlands on a county-by-county basis and can be accessed at www.broadband.gov.ie. The map shows Ireland with two colours BLUE and AMBER. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas that will have access to commercial high speed broadband services of a least 30Mbps. The AMBER area shows the target areas for the State intervention and includes over 700,000 addresses.

New private planned high speed broadband investments, such as those recently announced by eircom, may be added to the national high-speed coverage map, once it is established that these plans are definitive and meet the relevant criteria to deliver high speed broadband service to end users. My Department will thoroughly examine and evaluate any commercial investment announcements prior to altering the current national coverage map. For the moment, and pending finalisation of the necessary evaluation of eircom's announcement, the intervention area on our map will remain unchanged.