Skip to main content
Normal View

Broadband Service Speeds

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 February 2018

Tuesday, 20 February 2018

Questions (463)

Dara Murphy

Question:

463. Deputy Dara Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason there is poor broadband connectivity in an area (details supplied); when this issue will be rectified; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8132/18]

View answer

Written answers

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, almost 7 out of 10 of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland have access to high speed broadband.  This will increase to nearly 8 out of 10 premises by the end of this year and by 2020, 9 out of 10 premises will have access to a high speed broadband connection.  This is being achieved via a combination of commercial investment and a State led intervention. 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 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 map shows that  the townland of Ballygarvan Co. Cork comprises approximately 290 premises and broadband coverage will be realised through a mix of commercial investment and the State led Intervention under the NBP.  Of the 290 premises, 192 premises fall within the BLUE area where commercial operators are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services to this townland.  37 premises fall within light BLUE area and form part of eir’s 300k planned rural deployment, to be completed by the end of this year. The remaining 61 premises fall within the State led Intervention.  Individuals can access the High Speed Broadband Map using their eircode to ascertain the colour code status for their premises.

Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available from eir at http://fibrerollout.ie/eircode-lookup/ . Individuals can access this website to determine the connectivity availability status for their premises using their eircode.  The website also provides a list of retail service providers who offer services using the high speed fibre network in the area. 

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. That procurement process is now in its final stages. “Detailed Solutions”  have been evaluated by the NBP specialist team.

This is the last stage of the procurement process before moving to the final tender stage, which will be followed by the appointment of a preferred bidder and contract signature. When the procurement process reaches a satisfactory conclusion and a subsidy level is agreed by Government, a contract will be awarded and the network rollout will commence.

Prior to the rollout of the State led intervention, 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.

Top
Share