Robert Troy
Question:512. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the position regarding the provision of broadband to a property (details supplied). [21412/19]
View answerTuesday, 21 May 2019
Questions (512, 514, 515, 516)
Robert Troy
Question:514. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the position regarding the provision of broadband to a property (details supplied). [21414/19]
View answerRobert Troy
Question:515. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the position regarding the provision of broadband to a property (details supplied). [21415/19]
View answerRobert Troy
Question:516. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the position regarding the provision of broadband to a property (details supplied). [21416/19]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 512 and 514 to 516, inclusive, together.
The purpose of the National Broadband Plan is to ensure that over 1.1 million of our citizens in rural Ireland have the same opportunity to participate in the digital society as citizens living in urban areas. The availability of ubiquitous high speed broadband will bring significant benefits in areas of e-Health, e-Education, smart farming, regional development and tourism.
The premises referenced by the Deputy are all located in the AMBER area on the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map, which is available on my Department's website at www.broadband.gov.ie. The AMBER areas represent the target areas for the proposed State led Intervention under the NBP.
This intervention is the subject of the procurement process to engage a company to build, operate and maintain the NBP State intervention network. I recently brought a recommendation to Government to confer Preferred Bidder status on Granahan McCourt, the remaining bidder in the NBP procurement process and Government agreed to this.
The Government Decision of 7 May 2019 means that it is intended to award the State Intervention contract to the Bidder. This award is subject to contract close including finalisation of financial and legal documents. Deployment of the NBP State Intervention network will commence shortly after that.
The Bidder has indicated that the NBP State intervention will take an estimated 7 years from the beginning of deployment.
In the first year of this roll out, the Bidder will deploy approximately 300 Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) across all counties. It is anticipated that between 7 and 23 BCPs will be deployed in each county. BCPs will provide a community based high speed broadband service, enhancing online participation and allowing for the establishment of digital work hubs in these locations. A deployment plan will be made available by the bidder once the contract is signed. The Bidder is aiming to pass 133,000 premises by end of the second year of the overall deployment, with 70-100,000 passed each year thereafter until roll out is completed.