Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 June 2023
104. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will provide an update on the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan for each of the deployment areas across the Lee Valley; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28854/23]
View answerThe National Broadband Plan (NBP) state led intervention is being delivered by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) to roll out a high speed and future proofed broadband network within the intervention area which covers 1.1 million people living and working in over 560,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with some 679 schools.
I am advised by NBI that, as of 02 June 2023, 147,159 premises are passed across 26 counties and available for immediate connection. 42,805 premises are already connected to the NBP high-speed broadband network. NBI has also advised that as of 02 June, 18,074 premises in County Cork are passed with a high-speed fibre broadband network and available for immediate connection with 5,385 premises connected.
The network roll-out 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 network is specifically designed based on the NBI network coming from the eir exchanges or the metropolitan area networks (MANs) which allows NBI to reach every premises as quickly as possible. Villages, townlands and counties are covered by a number of DAs which means there are differing timescales for the roll-out across county areas.
Lee Valley is located in the DAs of Templemartin, Fermoy and Grenagh and NBI advise that connections to these areas will be made between 2024 and 2026.
Further details are available on specific areas within County Cork can be monitored via nbi.ie/reps. A county update can be selected to provide 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. NBI has a dedicated email address, reps@nbi.ie, which can be used by Oireachtas members for specific queries.
Strategic Connection Points (SCPs) 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 02 June 2023, 926 SCP sites (283 Broadband Connection Points, which are publicly accessible sites, and 643 schools) have been installed 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 Cork all 24 BCPs have been installed. Further details can be found at nbi.ie/bcp-map/.
In County Cork 90 schools have been installed to date for educational access. 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/.
