The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment by the telecommunications sector and a State intervention in those areas where commercial investment has not been fully demonstrated. The formal procurement process for the State Intervention commenced in December 2015.
To date, the commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2bn in upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high speed broadband and mobile telecoms services.
Approximately 1.3m premises in Ireland can now get high speed broadband and at least one mobile operator is delivering 4G services to over 90% of the population. It is estimated that up to 42% of premises in Co. Monaghan will have access to commercial high speed broadband services provided by telecommunications operators, while the remaining 58% consisting of just over 19,000 premises in Co. Monaghan will fall within the proposed State led intervention under the National Broadband Plan.
The breakdown of premises covered, per townland, is available on the High Speed Broadband Map at www.broadband.gov.ie. The maps shows that 9% of the townland of Dohamlat, Co Monaghan falls within the AMBER area and will therefore be included in the State intervention procurement process. The remaining 91% of Doohamlat is included in the BLUE area where commercial providers are either currently delivering or previously indicated that they have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.
Individuals can check whether their premises is in a BLUE or an AMBER area by scrolling through the map online or entering their Eircode. If customers in Doohamlat, Co Monaghan cannot access high speed broadband services, I would encourage them to contact my Department directly at broadband@dccae.gov.ie, quoting their address and Eircode, and giving details of providers they have contacted with a view to obtaining services.
The rollout of services by commercial operators in the BLUE area is being kept under constant review by the Department to ensure that all premises can get access to services, either through commercial investment or the State intervention.
The Department is now in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network within the State Intervention Area comprising over 750,000 premises, covering 100,000km of road network and 96% of the land area of Ireland.
Intensive dialogue with bidders is continuing and the three bidders have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution. Householders and businesses may get speeds not just of 30 Megabits per second but potentially up to 1000 megabits per second with businesses potentially availing of symmetrical upload and download speeds.
Earlier this year, before I came into office, the Department announced that it would be June 2017 before contract(s) were awarded under the NBP. The bidders in the process have recently indicated that they may need more time to conclude the procurement process. The timing of each stage of the procurement continues to be dependent on a range of factors including the complexities that may be encountered by the procurement team, and bidders, during the procurement process. Bidders need adequate time to prepare detailed proposals and their final formal bids and get the relevant shareholder and funding approvals at key stages of the process. It is also important to ensure that risks in this multi-million euro procurement are carefully managed. I do not propose to comment any further at this juncture, given that discussions are ongoing in the procurement process. I can assure the Deputy however, that the procurement process is being intensively managed, to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland, for at least 25 years. The Government considers the NBP to be one of the most significant investments in rural Ireland for decades, and one which will transform society, akin to rural electrification in the last century.
In parallel, and in accordance with commitments in the Programme for Government, Minister Humphreys is leading on the establishment of two regional action groups to help accelerate the broadband network build in rural Ireland, once a contract(s) has been awarded.
In July, I established a Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce with my colleague Minister Humphreys to address immediate issues in relation to the quality of mobile phone and broadband coverage. I expect the Taskforce to report by end 2016.
Some €15m has been provided for the NBP in my Department's Estimates for 2017 to provide for early stage mobilisation payment that may be required by winning bidder(s). I have also secured €8m for RTE which will allow it to free up the 700MHz spectrum band.
In addition, I recently signed Regulations allowing ComReg to proceed with an early 2017 auction of the 3.6GHz radio spectrum band, to provide an 86% increase in total spectrum available for mobile and fixed wireless services.
These initiatives should assist in significantly improving the quality of broadband and mobile phone services across Ireland, putting Ireland to the forefront internationally in terms of connectivity.
