Eircom is a private company and the enabling and upgrading of exchanges is an operational matter for that company and not one in which I have the statutory authority to intervene. The State only intervenes in market failure situations where licensed service providers have been unable to offer services on a commercial basis. The National Broadband Scheme (NBS) represents such an intervention. Following the conclusion of a technology neutral procurement process, my Department entered into a contract with Hutchison 3G Ireland Ltd (trading as “3”) in late December 2008 for the delivery of the NBS. The total cost to the Exchequer is some €80m of which an estimated €36m will be recouped from the EU.
Broadband services are available from “3”, the NBS service provider, in all of the 1,028 Electoral Divisions (ED) designated to be covered under the Scheme since October 2010. As regards the area of Carrigallen in Co Leitrim referred to by the Deputy, the EDs of Carrigallen East and Carrigallen West are covered under the Scheme. In keeping with State Aid clearance for the Scheme, the broadband service contracted under the NBS is a basic, affordable product. The NBS mobile wireless service currently offers minimum speeds of 1.6Mbps download and 1.2Mbps upload, subject to a maximum contention ratio. These speeds will be upgraded in October 2012 to 2.3mbps and 1.4mbps respectively at no cost to NBS customers.
The NBS satellite service, deployed in a limited number of cases for technical reasons associated with the location of the premises, has recently been enhanced following a competitive tendering process undertaken by 3. The new satellite service, provided by Digiweb, offers speeds of 3.6Mbps download and 384kbps upload, subject to a maximum contention ratio.
As regards service quality, the Department has well-established monitoring arrangements in place to ensure that the NBS delivers the minimum specified service or better to all users. The NBS contract guarantees service levels and imposes a service credit regime on “3”, with significant financial consequences in the event that minimum specification service levels are not met. Where NBS customers do not receive the minimum guaranteed service as set out in the terms and conditions of their contract, they are entitled to service rebates.
Any NBS customer who is experiencing problems with the NBS service can contact 3’s customer care centre 24 hours a day 7 days a week by phone at 1913 (free of charge) or by email to nbssupport@three.ie. Additionally, a team of field engineers has been established to address NBS specific service issues at customers’ premises. My Department has a role when customers have fully utilised the established complaints process and still feel that their complaint has not been resolved. It operates a dedicated NBS mailbox, which NBS customers can contact by email at nationalbroadbandscheme@dcenr.gov.ie with any comments or complaints they may have about their NBS service.
With basic broadband services available throughout Ireland, the challenge now is to accelerate the roll out of high speed services. This Government’s recently published National Broadband Plan entitled “Delivering a Connected Society – A National Broadband Plan for Ireland” aims to facilitate the provision of high speed broadband to every home and business in the State over the lifetime of the Government.
The plan has the following headline targets:
70Mbps - 100Mbps to more than half of the population by 2015;
At least 40Mbps, and in many cases much faster speeds, to at least a further 20% of the population and potentially as much as 35% around smaller towns and villages; and
A minimum of 30Mbps for every remaining home and business in the country – no matter how rural or remote.
As a first step in this plan, my Department will engage with the commercial service providers to identify those parts of the country which the commercial market will serve. This task will be essential to avoid displacing investments already made and being planned by the commercial service providers. The exercise is also required in order to meet EU Commission State Aid requirements.
Thereafter a public procurement will be announced to provide minimum levels of high speed broadband services across the country.
