Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 November 2020
132. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications when high-speed broadband will be supplied to all households including those in cities to allow them to work from home during the Covid-19 pandemic with ease; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34996/20]
View answerThe High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie, shows the areas which will be included in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) State led intervention as well as areas targeted by commercial operators. The map is colour coded and searchable by address and Eircode. - Premises in the AMBER area will be provided with high speed broadband through the State led Intervention, the contract for which was signed in November last with National Broadband Ireland (NBI).
- The BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.The NBP network will offer users a high speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 500Mbps from the outset. This represents an increase from the 150Mbps committed to under the Contract. The deployment plan forecasts premises passed in all counties within the first 2 years and over 90% of premises in the State having access to high speed broadband within the next four years.As of 4 November, design work is complete or on-going in target townlands across 25 counties and steady progress is being made with almost 122,000 premises surveyed to date. This activity involves physically walking the routes and documenting images, notes and measurements of the poles, cables and underground ducts in each area. This is informing design solutions for provision of the fibre network. This detailed design is then used to initiate the ‘make ready’ project with eir for the area, where eir ensure any poles and ducts being reused are fit for purpose. It is also used to initiate works with the subcontractors deploying the actual fibre in the area.The first fibre to the home connections are expected around December 2020 and they will be subject to technical testing and validation prior to a wider release of the area. I am advised that from the end of January retailers will be able to resell the service and householders in these areas will be able to order high speed broadband provided via the NBI network.NBI provides a facility for any premises within the AMBER area to register their interest in being provided with deployment updates through its website (https://nbi.ie/map/).Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) are a key element of the NBP providing high speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll out of the fibre to the home network. As of 30 October, 187 BCP sites have been installed by NBI with 59 sites now connected with high speed broadband connectivity. The high speed broadband service will be switched on in BCP locations through 'service provider' contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development for publicly available sites and by the Department of Education and Skills for schools. It is anticipated that circa 275 BCP sites will be installed by the end of the year including 74 schools. School BCPs will be provided with high speed broadband, for educational use only, through a service provider contract managed by the Department of Education and Skills. Some 20 schools have been installed with high speed broadband for educational access of which 6 are now live with an internet service. My Department will work with the Department of Education and Skills to prioritise the remaining schools to be connected over the term of the NBP. Further details can be found at https://nbi.ie/bcp-locations/ .While substantial progress has been made to date, the Covid 19 pandemic has had an impact on the delivery of the fibre network. The extent of this impact is currently being assessed and NBI has committed to put in place measures to mitigate the impact in as far as possible. The Covid 19 pandemic has also highlighted the importance of good reliable broadband to ensure that citizens across Ireland can avail of remote working, education and other essential online facilities. This is reflected in the commitments in the Programme for Government where delivery of the National Broadband Plan will be a key enabler to many of the policies envisaged particularly around increased levels of remote working.Extensive investment plans are in place by a range of commercial operators active in the BLUE areas. These plans will see improved high speed broadband access across the country. In this regard eir are today delivering fibre to the home services to 576,000 premises and have announced plans to increase this coverage to approximately 1.8 million homes over a 5 year period. SIRO have already passed 344,000 premises and plan to provide coverage to 365,000 in total by the end of this year. Virgin Media now provide high speed broadband to almost 1 million premises and are continuing to expand their services.
