Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 July 2009
529 Deputy Simon Coveney asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the position regarding the broadband for schools project; when he expects this project to be fully rolled out; the cost of this project; and the timescale involved. [27862/09]
Amharc ar fhreagra78 schools have been selected to participate in a 100 Mbps to post primary schools pilot project. The pilot project will guide a wider roll out of broadband to post primary schools in due course and will ensure value for money is maximised.
A Request for Tender (RFT) for the access element of the project (connection from the school to HEAnet's Schools Network via an appropriate service provider) was published on 25 June 2009. Further RFTs for the upgrade of HEAnet's core infrastructure, router and content filtering and Local Area Networks will issue shortly. I expect rollout of the pilot project to be completed by summer 2010. The cost of the project will depend on the successful tenders.
530 Deputy Simon Coveney asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the details of the broadband infrastructure audit undertaken by him. [27863/09]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Policy Paper ‘Next Generation Broadband — Gateway to a Knowledge Ireland', which was published on my Department's website on 22 June 2009 has, as one of its actions, the establishment of a one-stop-shop to provide service providers with flexible and open-access to existing and future State owned infrastructure suitable for telecoms services.
Leveraging publicly owned ducting has the capacity to significantly reduce costs for private sector investors in rolling out fibre to the regions and thereby improve competition in the electronic communications market.
My officials have worked with the relevant State agencies in the energy and transport sectors to compile a data-base of the supply of publicly-owned-infrastructure, which currently or potentially can support high speed broadband networks.
Following this process, maps have been compiled, which provide an indicative depiction of the supply of relevant State infrastructure including the Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs). These maps were published on my Department's website in conjunction with the policy paper and can therefore be accessed on the website.
It is important to note that the readiness of this infrastructure to support high speed broadband networks varies between agencies and can depend, for example, on whether an agency is already involved in the telecom sector and, if so, whether existing contractual arrangements may restrict the infrastructure being available on an open-access basis.
The next step in developing the one-stop-shop is to decide on an operational model and I expect to make a decision on this shortly.
