Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 March 2023
172. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the reason a house (details supplied) that is not in receipt of a broadband signal of 30mbs is not covered by the roll out by National Broadband Ireland of high-speed broadband; if it is now intended to include this and other neighbouring houses in this roll out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14526/23]
View answerThe 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.
It is noted that the premises referred to in the question is indicated as being in the BLUE area. Following a review by the Department’s technical team it has been confirmed that this premises is not currently capable of getting high speed broadband through commercial means.
Commercial operators have recently indicated their plans to supply Gigabit services to all premises in the BLUE area of the NBP Map as part of their commercial network rollouts. However, due to the specifics of this premises, in terms of its location and high-speed broadband provision in the surrounding areas it has been decided that this premises will be reclassified and served by NBI under the National Broadband Plan.
In terms of next steps, reclassification will require a formal change to ensure that this premises is included on the broadband maps. My Department is working with NBI to execute this change and to ensure it is factored into the build programme.
