Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 October 2023
162. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will review a case in County Cavan (details supplied); if the case can be escalated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43198/23]
View answerIn December 2022, my Department published Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy which supports the ambition outlined in the National Digital Strategy and sets out a number of ambitious targets, including that:
• all Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028
• all populated areas will be covered by 5G no later than 2030, and
• digital connectivity will be delivered to all schools and broadband connection points by 2023
These targets will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and through the State investment in National Broadband Ireland (NBI).
The premises referred to in the Question is located in the BLUE area on the NBP High-Speed Broadband Map which is available on my Department's website at www.broadband.gov.ie.
BLUE areas are not included in the State intervention area covered by National Broadband Ireland as commercial operators are already providing high-speed broadband or have indicated future plans to do so. My Department defines high-speed broadband as a connection with minimum speeds of 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload. Under State aid rules, it is not permitted to intervene in areas where commercial investment exists or is planned, as to do so would be an infringement of these rules. The activities of commercial operators delivering high-speed broadband within BLUE areas are not planned or funded by the State and my Department has no statutory authority to intervene in that regard.
Commercial operators’ fibre rollouts are progressing at pace. Open eir have already passed over 16,400 homes and businesses in Cavan with gigabit services, with plans to pass a further c.8,000 homes and businesses over the next 2 – 3 years, bringing their total fibre-based investment in the county to over €13m. SIRO recently passed over 4,397 premises for full fibre in Cavan also.
When a customer places a fibre connection order through a Retail service provider (RSP) the contract for service delivery and the maintenance of the service is with the RSP and the end user.
The RSP will place the order on the open eir ordering system (the “Unified Gateway” – this system is also regulated and is an equivalent of inputs (EOI) which means all RSP have access to the exact same system for ordering).
Once the order is placed – open eir will despatch a install technician to install the connection (all agreements/scheduling is between the RSP and end user).
When the install technician initially arrives, they will survey the connection and determine if additional infrastructure is required. As what happened in the case of your constituent, the install technician determined that a new pole was required.
Once additional infrastructure is required it is a non-standard installation so the connection timelines are longer. As this new pole was on private land your constituent signed wayleaves to allow these poles on their land.
The next step of this process involves the install technician feeding these requirements back to open eir and open eir will schedule the pole install when the next available crew is in the area – this can take a number a weeks to complete. When open eir have an available pole installation slot they will inform the RSP and the RSP will contact your constituent.
Recent ComReg data shows that Quarter 2, 2023 saw a 7.4% increase in fibre broadband subscriptions compared to the first 3 months of the year, and a 33.7% increase when compared to Quarter 2 of 2022. This demonstrates that take-up of fibre connectivity for homes and businesses is increasing massively as it is deployed to areas where it had previously been unavailable. The same ComReg data also indicates that c.40% of homes and business throughout the State now have access to gigabit services through either fibre (576,856) or cable (359,669) infrastructure.
