Robert Troy
Question:593. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the tendering procedure for the roll-out of broadband in County Longford and a specific timeframe for it. [14254/16]
View answerWednesday, 8 June 2016
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Written answers
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. This is being achieved through private investment by commercial telecommunications companies and through a State intervention in areas where commercial investment is not forthcoming.
The High Speed Broadband Map 2020, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie shows the extent of the State Intervention area, which is the subject of procurement. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services. The Department continues to monitor the commercial deployment plans in the BLUE area where commercial operators have committed to providing services, to ensure that those services are delivered.
The areas marked AMBER on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the target areas for the State Intervention.
Members of the public can view whether their premises are in the BLUE or AMBER area by accessing the High Speed Broadband Map and entering their Eircode. The map provides information on a county by county basis with a breakdown of coverage across the townlands in every county including County Longford.
My Department continues to actively monitor the deployment plans in the BLUE area where commercial operators have committed to providing services, to ensure those services are delivered. I would encourage consumers and business owners to contact my Department at broadband@dcenr.gov.ie where specific problems arise in relation to provision by commercial operators of High Speed Broadband services in the BLUE area.
There are over 750,000 premises in the AMBER area, and these are the focus of the procurement process, which formally commenced in December 2015 with the publication of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire ('PQQ') and Project Information Memorandum. The procurement takes the form of a competitive dialogue which is complex and involves several steps:
- Step 1: Publication of the Pre-qualification Questionnaire – this step was launched on 22 December 2015
- Step 2: The responses by telecoms operators to Step 1 are received. - Five responses were received to this stage of the process, by the deadline of 31 March (which was extended by one month, from 29 February to 31 March at the request of bidders). These responses are currently being evaluated and will result in a list of qualifying bidders being invited to dialogue with the Department;
- Step 3: The commencement of detailed technical and financial negotiations with qualified bidders (Invitation to Participate in Dialogue). This is scheduled to commence within the next month and will take a number of months;
- Step 4: Following the detailed negotiations outlined in Step 3, bidders submit draft bids for further dialogue;
- Step 5: Bidders will then submit final, formal tenders for evaluation;
- Step 6: The formal tenders submitted by bidders will be evaluated;
- Step 7: Preferred bidder or bidders are identified;
- Step 8: A contract or contracts will be awarded.
The timing of each stage of the procurement is dependent on a number of factors including the number of bidders short-listed and the complexities that may be encountered during the dialogue process. Bidders will need several months to prepare their draft bids and their final formal bids and to get the relevant shareholder and funding approvals at these stages of the process. It is expected that contract(s) will be awarded in June 2017.
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. A prioritisation programme will be put in place in this regard, in consultation with the Minister for Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht. A detailed rollout plan for the network will be published once contract(s) are in place.
In parallel with the procurement process, and in line with the Programme for a Partnership Government, my colleague, Minister Heather Humphreys will lead on the establishment of county or regional broadband taskforces, working with Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Offices, LEADER Groups and other relevant agencies to help accelerate the broadband network build in rural Ireland, once contract(s) have been awarded.