Thomas Byrne
Question:473. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to upgrade broadband services in an area (details supplied). [8323/18]
View answerTuesday, 20 February 2018
Questions (473)
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.
The premises referred to by the Deputy is in an AMBER area on my Department’s High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. It is therefore included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).
My Department is in a formal procurement process to engage 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.
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.