I propose to take Questions Nos. 12, 14, 20, 25 and 27, inclusive, together. MMDS franchises have been offered to and accepted by the successful applicants in respect of all areas except Counties Donegal and Sligo. I hope to be in a position to make a decision on the award of a franchise for these latter areas shortly.
The question of when service becomes available is primarily a matter for the operators. From the information available to me, I would expect services to be coming on stream from the spring of next year. The speed with which systems are installed in any area will depend on such things as delivery of equipment, site development work, etc.
I am fully satisfied that MMDS is the only practicable way to extend real multi-channel television choice to the whole of the country and I remain fully committed to the establishment of the network. For reasons connected primarily with radio frequency spectrum scarcity and management, such choice cannot be made available through deflector systems. The question of amending legislation to provide for such systems does not arise.