The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority. This is being achieved through private investment by commercial telecommunications companies and through a State intervention in areas where commercial investment is not forthcoming.
The procurement process aims to identify an entity or entities to build, roll-out, operate and deliver high speed broadband of at least 30 Mbps download and 6 Mbps upload speeds to all premises within the intervention area. Last week, I announced that the three bidders in the procurement process have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution for rural Ireland under the National Broadband Plan intervention. Householders and businesses may potentially get speeds not just of 30Mbps but up to 1Gbps with businesses potentially availing of symmetrical upload and download speeds. This is a solution that will endure for 25 years and beyond and put Ireland to the forefront internationally in terms of connectivity.
The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie
shows the extent of the State Intervention area:
- The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have previously indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services.
- The areas marked AMBER on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the target areas for the State Intervention which are the subject of the current procurement process. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.
High speed services that are rolled out in BLUE areas are done so on a commercial basis by telecommunications operators. Due to confidentiality agreements with the operators who supplied coverage data for the NBP mapping exercise, it is not possible to provide you with specific operator details in the areas, nor can I compel commercial operators to extend their coverage areas. I can however assure the Deputy that my Department is actively monitoring the High Speed Broadband map to ensure that any area which is not covered by the commercial sector, is covered in the State intervention.
