Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 September 2015
605. Deputy Noel Coonan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to provide sufficient high-speed broadband to a business (details supplied) in County Tipperary, given the need for this infrastructure in the business premises for adequate customer service; the service currently available in the town (details supplied); his plans for further broadband investment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33151/15]
View answerThe National Broadband Plan (NBP) is a Government initiative which aims to deliver high speed broadband to every citizen and business in Ireland. This is being achieved through a combination of accelerated commercial investment by telecoms operators, and a proposed State intervention to provide high speed broadband to those parts of the country where the commercial sector will not invest.
Last November I published a national high speed coverage map for 2016. This map is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The map shows Ireland with two colours, BLUE and AMBER and was developed based on the most up to date information available at the time of publication. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services by end 2016 and includes Templemore, County Tipperary.
The areas marked AMBER represent those areas where the State intends to intervene to ensure those areas will have access to high speed broadband services.
My Department is currently in the process of updating the Map, taking into consideration any new information received or operator announcements made of any new plans. We expect to publish an updated version of the Map before the end of this year.
According to publicly available information on eir's website (www.openeir.ie ) some 890 premises in Templemore already have access to high speed broadband. I would encourage members of the public to establish for themselves, through both my Department's map and the information that the commercial operators are providing to the public, whether their individual premises are in an existing or planned Next Generation Access (NGA) area.
Where it is established that a premises is in an area already upgraded and service quality remains an issue, then the person involved should raise this matter with their service provider in the first instance. Should the matter remain unresolved, it should then be brought to the attention of ComReg who will have it investigated. Neither I nor my Department has any role in resolving service quality issues.
The NBP proposed Intervention Strategy document, which was published on 15 July last, sets out a series of detailed proposals by Government in respect of the proposed State intervention. It sets out the key elements of the intervention - what services are proposed and how they will be delivered. It outlines various aspects of the proposed intervention including the type of network envisaged, the minimum speeds being demanded, the length of the contract for services, and whether the network should be public or privately owned.
The Government is determined to ensure that the network is built out as quickly as possible and engagement with industry stakeholders has indicated that this could be achieved within 3-5 years of the contract award.
In this context, the NBP proposes that through the combination of commercial investment and State intervention, 85% of addresses in Ireland will have access to high speed services by 2018 with all addresses passed by 2020.
