James Lawless
Question:139. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will examine a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10606/23]
View answerThursday, 2 March 2023
Questions (139)
Written answers
The High-Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie, shows the areas 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 BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.
The 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 so the premises is included in the NBP. I can confirm that the neighbours premises referred to in the question is also in the AMBER area. Commercial operators such as eir, Vodafone or SIRO are also serving homes in the area. I appreciate people's frustration when they are living so close to a fibre network but cannot obtain a connection to that network. The NBP will ensure that over one million homes, which previously could not access high-speed broadband will be able to do so.
I am advised by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) that, as of 17 February 2023, over 129,400 premises can order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection across 26 counties, with over 118,600 premises passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. NBI has advised that 2,506 premises in County Kildare are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection. As of 31st January 847 premises are now connected in County Kildare.
Further details are available on specific areas within County Kildare 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.
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.
Each DA creates a ‘fibre ring’ which is essential to ensure reliability, robustness and resilience. Critical to the success of the network, NBI’s fibre rings are built with back-ups, ensuring that in the event of one fibre cable being disrupted, the whole network continues to perform, protecting customer experience. Each fibre ring that NBI deploys is designed in a way that is non-discriminatory, meaning that as the rollout progresses, it may pass relatively urban areas at the same time as passing some of the most remote premises within the intervention area. The design utilises existing infrastructure to a very significant degree.
The NBP network build that started in 2020 is scheduled to be completed by 2026. NBI advise that the premises referred to in this question is at a status of ‘Pending Survey’.
Surveys are needed to establish the condition of existing poles and ducts, to ascertain whether repairs are needed. NBI’s contractors walk the fibre route to inspect infrastructure and gather detailed information on local condition. Further steps are then required prior to fibre build and connections including:
- Survey results fed back to NBI’s design teams who then develop detailed designs for each of the 227 Deployment Areas for submission to the Department for “Approval to Proceed” with fibre build;
- Repair/activities (“Make Ready”) carried out to ensure existing infrastructure is sufficiently prepared to pass the premises with fibre;
- Installation of and connection to electronic equipment in each Local Exchange building;
- Laying of the physical fibre along the poles and ducts;
- Fibre build quality checks, network testing and handover within NBI;
- Upload of specific fibre build details by premises to computer systems within NBI, enabling retail service providers to make connection orders visible on their respective systems which in turn allows premises’ owners to place orders.
- On completion of network build works customers can then place an order and request a connection to be scheduled with the retail service provider of choice.
NBI have created a portal that will serve as a means for Oireachtas members to proactively search for information relevant to their county/local area. The dedicated webpage can be accessed here: nbi.ie/reps