Brian Stanley
Question:606. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when the local broadband service around Stradbally in County Laois will be upgraded. [33192/15]
View answerTuesday, 29 September 2015
Questions (606)
Written answers
The 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 the end of 2016 and includes Stradbally in County Laois.
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's map indicates that 1% of premises in Stradbally will be covered by the NBP intervention, which means that all other premises in Stradbally will have high speed broadband of at least 30mbps by the end of 2016.
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) the company expects to have the necessary work to enable the provision of high-speed broadband services in Stradbally completed this autumn.
I would encourage members of the public to consult both my Department's map and the information being provided by the commercial operators on their respective websites to establish the precise situation regarding their individual premises.
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.