My Department welcomes queries from public representatives and members of the public in relation to the National Broadband Plan (NBP) and has a dedicated inbox, broadband@dccae.gov.ie, for this purpose. Queries received in relation to the NBP are then responded to by members of my Department’s NBP team. There is also helpful information on the NBP available through my Department’s website at www.broadband.gov.ie.
The National Broadband Plan aims to deliver high speed broadband 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 a combination of commercial investment by the telecommunications sector and a State intervention in those areas where commercial investment has not been fully demonstrated.
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 on the High Speed Broadband Map represent those areas where commercial telecommunications 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 map provides information on a county by county basis with a breakdown of coverage across the townlands in every county. Individuals can check whether their premises are in a BLUE or an AMBER area by accessing the High Speed Broadband Map and entering their Eircode.
My Department is actively monitoring the commercial deployment plans in the BLUE areas to ensure that all premises can get access to services. In this regard, direct feedback from consumers is important and if customers in these areas cannot access high speed broadband services, I would encourage them to contact my Department directly at broadband@dccae.gov.ie, quoting their address and Eircode and giving details of providers they have contacted with a view to obtaining services.
A formal procurement process is in train to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network within the State Intervention Area. The Department will shortly update the High Speed Broadband map and finalise this Intervention Area for bidders, taking into account any industry investments that have not materialised in Blue areas, along with new industry investments and concrete, commitments by industry for further new investments within the proposed State Intervention Area.
The procurement process is being intensively managed, to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland, for at least 25 years. Intensive dialogue with bidders is continuing and the three bidders have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution. This provides for a future proofed-solution for the 25 years of the contract and beyond. A fibre-to-the-home solution means that householders and businesses may get speeds not just of 30 Megabits per second but much higher, potentially up to 1000 Megabits per second.
The timeframe for the procurement continues to be dependent on a range of factors, including the complexities that may be encountered by the procurement team and bidders during the procurement process. During the Department's extensive stakeholder consultations in 2015, telecommunications service providers indicated a 3-5 year timeline to roll-out a network of the scale envisaged under the NBP. As part of the competitive process, the Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best roll out strategy, in order to target areas of particularly poor service, business needs and/or high demand. This will need to be balanced with the most efficient network roll out plan. A prioritisation programme will be put in place in this regard, in consultation with the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. A detailed roll-out plan for the network will be published once contract(s) are in place.
The Programme for Government also commits to measures to assist in the roll-out of the network once a contract is awarded. In this regard, Minister Humphreys is leading on the establishment of two regional action groups, working with Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Offices and other relevant agencies to help accelerate the broadband network build in rural Ireland, once a contract(s) has been awarded.
In a further positive initiative, last July, I established a Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce with my colleague Minister Humphreys to address immediate issues in relation to the quality of mobile phone and broadband coverage. The Taskforce report is available on my Department’s website at the following link: http://www.dccae.gov.ie/communications/en-ie/Broadband/Pages/Mobile-Phone-and-Broadband-Taskforce.aspx.
As part of the Taskforce recommendations, the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs is funding all local authorities to assign an officer with responsibility for broadband to act as the single point of contact for engagement with operators to assist with accelerated roll-out of the National Broadband Plan and create awareness of/stimulate demand for broadband services. 24 local authorities have now appointed dedicated Broadband Officers, to work with the telecoms industry. Each of these reports to and is being actively supported at Director level in the relevant Local Authority. My Department will be working closely with these Officers and this initiative will further enhance the availability of local information.
I have signed Regulations allowing ComReg to proceed with an early 2017 auction of the 3.6GHz radio spectrum band, to provide an 86% increase in total spectrum available for mobile and fixed wireless services. I have also secured €8m for RTE which will allow it to free up the 700MHz spectrum band, to provide enhanced mobile services.
In the meantime, my Department continues to liaise closely with industry and relevant other Departments and agencies to assist in the commercial deployment of telecommunications networks. The commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2.5bn in upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high speed broadband and mobile telecoms services.
These investments should assist in significantly improving the coverage and quality of broadband and mobile voice and data services throughout the country.
