Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 April 2017
334. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of bidders' applications to connect the remaining 500,000 homes covered under the national broadband plan since the plan was revised after a company (details supplied) was granted 300,000 premises; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18479/17]
View answer335. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the position for future homes and businesses built on or close to a company's (details supplied) blue lines in relation to broadband coverage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18480/17]
View answer336. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views on the overall viability of the remaining 500,000 premises still covered by the national broadband plan after 300,000 houses were given to a company (details supplied) in recent changes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18481/17]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 334 to 336, inclusive, together.
The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed broadband 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.
A key principle of the NBP is to support and stimulate commercial investment through policy and regulatory measures. Commercial investment since the publication of the NBP has considerably exceeded expectations. To date, the commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2.5bn in upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high speed broadband and mobile telecoms services.
There has been significant progress in relation to broadband rollout so that today, approximately 1.4m or 61% of premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband of a minimum of 30 Megabits per second. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector, which is continuing to expand this footprint.
On the 4 April, I signed a commitment agreement with eir in relation to their plans to provide broadband to an additional 300,000 premises in rural areas on a commercial basis. Eir has committed to doing this work over the next 90 weeks, an average of 500 premises passed per day. The rollout plan has been agreed with my Department and this along with the tight deadline will be monitored closely by my Department to ensure that they meet their obligations under the Agreement. A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my website www.dccae.gov.ie.
On the same day I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie which finalises the State Intervention area. The updated Map shows the following categories of areas for delivery of broadband:
- The BLUE areas represent those areas where commercial telecommunications providers are either currently delivering or have indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services,
- The AMBER areas on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the areas that will require State Intervention and are the subject of the current procurement process.
It is intended that all premises will have access to services of at least 30 megabits per second when the procurement process is completed and the network rolled out.
There are c.2.3m premises covering Ireland’s 26 counties, of which approximately 542,000 premises are located in the AMBER area on the Map, and will require State Intervention. The remaining 1.8m premises are located in the BLUE area and will be served by commercial operators. Of the 1.8m premises, some 300,000 premises fall within eir’s plans to deliver high speed broadband by end of 2018. Further information of eir's planned rural deployment is available at a http://fibrerollout.ie/eircode-lookup/.
Individuals can themselves check whether their premises is in a BLUE or an AMBER area by accessing the High Speed Broadband Map and entering their Eircode at www.broadband.gov.ie.
A formal procurement process is in train to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network within the State Intervention Area. 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 finalisation of the State Intervention Area for the procurement process is an important milestone as it means that bidders can progress their business plans and the Department can move to the next stage of the procurement.
The timeframe for 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. During the Department's extensive stakeholder consultations in 2015, telecommunications service providers indicated a 3-5 year timeline to rollout a network of the scale envisaged under the NBP once contracts are in place.
The Programme for Government also commits to measures to assist in the rollout of the network once a contract is awarded.
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 and a prioritisation programme.
The Government remains committed to ensuring that all parts of Ireland will have at least 30Mbps connectivity, through public or private sector investment, as outlined in the National Broadband Plan.
