Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 October 2022
193. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the timeline and date for the roll-out of broadband in an area (details supplied) of County Leitrim; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50060/22]
View answerThe Question refers to a premises located in the AMBER area on the National Broadband Plan (NBP) High Speed Broadband Map which is available on my Department's website www.broadband.gov.ie. The AMBER area represents the area to be served by the network to be deployed under the NBP State led intervention.
I am advised by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) that, as of 30 September 2022, over 337,000 premises are design completed and over 94,500 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 25 counties, with over 85,000 premises passed across 23 counties and available for immediate connection. Construction is underway across 26 counties demonstrating that the project is reaching scale. To date, the level of connections is increasing on a daily basis and is in line with or exceeding projections.
The network rollout for the NBP is divided into 227 Deployment Areas (DAs) across the country. These are typically an area of approximately 25km in radius and in total they cover 96% of Ireland’s landmass. The architecture of the network design is specifically based on the design of the NBI network coming from the eir exchanges or the metropolitan area networks (MANs). It is based on an engineering design that allows NBI to reach every premises as quickly as possible working within the confines of how fibre networks are built. Villages, townlands and counties may be covered by a number of DAs which means there are differing timescales for the rollout across county areas.
Further details are available on specific areas within County Sligo and County Leitrim through the NBI website which provides a facility for any premises within the intervention area to register their interest in being provided with deployment updates through its website www.nbi.ie. Individuals who register with this facility will receive regular updates on progress by NBI on delivering the network and specific updates related to their own premises as works commence. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.
NBI has made recent improvements to their website to enhance the provision of information to Oireachtas members. NBI has now completed a suite of changes, creating a portal that will serve as a means for Oireachtas members to proactively search for information relevant to their county/local area. The portal provides an up-to-date picture of NBI’s deployment schedule across the 227 Deployment Areas (DAs) in all 26 counties. A particular county can be selected to view an update of the overall number of premises in the Intervention Area, the overall NBP investment in the county, the number of premises passed and connected to date and the status of each of the Deployment Areas with the anticipated date for connection over the lifetime of the project. The dedicated webpage can be accessed here: www.nbi.ie.
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. Some 749 BCP sites have been installed by NBI to date and the high-speed broadband service will be switched on in these locations through service provider contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development for publicly accessible sites and the Department of Education for school BCPs. In County Sligo, 9 BCP’s have been installed to date with 11 sites installed in County Leitrim. Further details can be found at nbi.ie/bcp-locations/.
In County Sligo, some 21 schools have been installed by NBI to date for educational access, with 9 now installed in County Leitrim. My Department continues to work with the Department of Education to prioritise schools with no high-speed broadband, within the Intervention Area. Further details of schools in scope are available on the NBI website at nbi.ie/primary-schools-list/.
In relation to the BCP located at Killenummery Hall, Co. Leitrim, NBI have advised that the reason houses in the area cannot be connected is due to the fact that neither NBI nor any commercial operator has a fibre network in the area. BCP connections are very specialist, do not require fibre and are provided as a temporary measure until NBI completes the rollout in the area.
