National Broadband Plan Implementation

Tuesday, 13 February 2018

Questions (541, 552)

Robert Troy

Question:

541. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to extend the roll-out of fibre broadband in an area (details supplied). [7094/18]

View answer

552. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to examine the implementation of the national broadband plan in an area (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7367/18]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment

I propose to take Questions Nos. 541 and 552 together.

The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure high speed broadband access (minimum 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector. Today 7 out of 10 of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland have access to high speed broadband. By the end of this year that number will rise to nearly 8 out of 10 premises and by 2020, 9 out of 10 premises or 90% of premises will have access to a high speed broadband connection.

In April 2017 I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. This map shows the areas targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

The Map is colour coded and searchable by address/eircode:

- The AMBER areas represent the target areas for the proposed State led Intervention under the NBP and are the subject of an ongoing procurement process.

- The BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.

- The LIGHT BLUE areas represent eir's commercial rural deployment plans to rollout high speed broadband to 300,000 premises by the end of this year as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with me in April 2017.

The areas referred to by the Deputy, Raheenmore Road, in Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath and an area known as the Back of the Hill, Ardagh, Co. Longford both fall within AMBER areas on the map and will get access to high speed broadband through the State led intervention.

With regards to the Deputy’s query regarding the extension of the eir 300,000 rural rollout to these areas, the decisions made by private telecommunication operators relating to the rollout and siting of infrastructure to provide high speed broadband services throughout Ireland are undertaken on a commercial basis by competing service providers operating in a liberalised market. I have no statutory role or function to intervene in the commercial decisions of private operators, and therefore cannot direct operators regarding infrastructure installation or delivery of services.

My Department is in a formal procurement process to select a company who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. The process is at an advanced stage. When the procurement process reaches a satisfactory conclusion for Government, a contract will be awarded and the network rollout will commence.

Delivering high speed broadband to citizens across Ireland remains a firm commitment of mine and this Government.

In the interim, practical initiatives will continue to be addressed through the work of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce to address obstacles and improve connectivity in respect of existing and future mobile phone and broadband services.

Under this Taskforce, engagement between telecommunications operators and local authorities through the Broadband Officers is continuing to strengthen. These Broadband Officers are acting as single points of contact in local authorities for their communities. The appointment of these officers is already reaping rewards in terms of ensuring a much greater degree of consistency in engagements with operators and clearing obstacles to developing infrastructure. There is a link to a list of these local Broadband Officers on my Department's website