The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for a Partnership Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority.
It is expected that 70% of all premises in Ireland will receive high speed services from the commercial telecommunications market. The remaining 30% (over 750,000 premises) are the focus of a major State procurement, which formally commenced in December 2015 with the publication of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire ('PQQ') and Project Information Memorandum.
In line with EU State Aid Guidelines, the Department has had extensive engagement with operators to identify those areas where there are plans to rollout high speed broadband on a commercial basis. In October 2015, the Department published the process by which it assesses such plans. Plans received from commercial operators were subsequently assessed under technical, deployment and financial criteria and where these criteria were met, operators were asked to sign a Commitment Agreement in respect of those plans. To date no company has met all of the criteria and signed a Commitment Agreement. In December 2015, the Department therefore published the updated map. The Department has reserved the right to update the Map during procurement where a commercial plan is deemed to comply with the Department's assessment criteria and the operator signs the required Commitment Agreement, or where there is a question as to whether previous commercial plans, that are currently reflected on the High Speed Broadband Map, will materialise.
In relation to the State Intervention, five responses have been received from prospective bidders to this stage of the competitive procurement process by the deadline of 31 March 2016. The five responses are being assessed in line with the criteria set down by the Department with a view to shortlisted qualified bidders proceeding to the next stage of procurement.
The second stage in the procurement process will be a formal invitation to Participate in Dialogue (ITPD) to shortlisted bidders. I expect that my Department will move to this stage in the next month. The third stage of the procurement process involves the issue of final tender documentation which follows the dialogue process. Following the submission of final tenders by bidders, a winning bidder(s) will be selected for the contract which will comprise one or two lots as set out in the Intervention Strategy document. The Department will then enter into formal contract negotiations with the winning bidder(s). It is expected that a contract will be awarded by June 2017.
Rollout will commence once the contract is in place. Based on industry consultations, it is expected that 85% of all premises in Ireland will have access to high speed broadband within 2 years after rollout commences, with 100% being connected within 5 years or sooner.
As part of the competitive process, the Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best rollout strategy, in order to target areas of particularly poor service, business needs and / or high demand. This will need to be balanced with the most efficient network rollout plan.
I am in discussion at present with Minister Heather Humphreys on the detailed arrangements to give effect to commitments in the Programme for a Partnership Government regarding her Department’s role in relation to the rollout phase of the National Broadband Plan. It is envisaged that the role will include leading on the establishment of county or regional broadband taskforces and working with local authorities, Local Enterprise Offices, LEADER Groups and other relevant agencies to help accelerate the broadband network build in rural Ireland, once a contract(s) has been awarded.
