Broadband Service Provision

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 November 2018

Tuesday, 20 November 2018

Questions (535, 536)

Robert Troy

Question:

535. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views on the fact that the roll-out of fibre broadband in an area (details supplied) has been pushed back by up to six months despite repeated assurances from Eir and his Department that the roll-out would occur in quarter 4 of 2018; and his further views on whether it is acceptable that the delay has not been communicated to customers in the area and was only confirmed on 13 November 2018. [47893/18]

Robert Troy

Question:

536. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will request Eir to put in place additional staff to deal with customer queries and queries from Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas to ensure such queries are dealt with in a timely manner and customers are kept informed in view of repeated missed targets by it in the roll-out of fibre broadband. [47910/18]

Written answers

Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment

I propose to take Questions Nos. 535 and 536 together.

In April 2017 my Department 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. 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 as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with my Department in April 2017.

There are 135 premises in Ballymore. 2 (1%) fall within the AMBER area and will be served under the State led Intervention, while 133 (99%) are LIGHT BLUE and fall to be served by eir's planned rural deployment.

Under a Commitment Agreement signed with my Department in April 2017, eir is in the process of passing 300,000 predominantly rural homes with high speed broadband. According to data for Q3 2018 submitted by eir to my Department the company has passed almost 210,000 premises nationwide as part of its ongoing deployment. This data is to be published on my Department’s website shortly.

eir has indicated to the Department that their deployment schedule has been impacted by storms Emma and Ophelia, and other construction issues. The company has proposed new timelines for its deployment which would see the project completed by mid-2019. Officials from my Department are engaged with eir on this proposal.

As the Deputy will be aware, eir is a private company, operating on a commercial basis in a liberalised market. The company’s response to queries is a matter for it alone, and not one in which I have any statutory authority to intervene. If, after having exhausted a service provider's complaint handling procedures, a customer is not happy, they may contact ComReg, on 1890 229 668; online at http://www.askcomreg.ie/ or by email at [e-mail], for further assistance and guidance with their issue.