Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 February 2017
728. Deputy Frank O'Rourke asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will provide a breakdown of access to high-speed broadband in north Kildare, by region, since 1 January 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9574/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Broadband Plan (NBP) 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.
A key principle of the NBP is to support and stimulate commercial investment through policy and regulatory measures. Commercial investment since the publication of the NBP has considerably exceeded expectations. To date, 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.
Currently, approximately 1.4m premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband from commercial service providers and investment by the telecoms sector is continuing to expand this footprint.
The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie shows the extent of the commercial rollout and the State Intervention area. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services. The Department continues to monitor the commercial deployment plans in the BLUE area where commercial operators have committed to providing services, to ensure that those services are delivered. The areas marked AMBER on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the target areas for the State Intervention.
Information on a county by county basis with a breakdown of coverage across the townlands in every county is available on my Department’s website at www.dccae.gov.ie/communications/en-ie/Broadband/Pages/County-and-Townland-Maps.aspx. Based on information provided by commercial operators and represented on our broadband map, coverage in County Kildare is mixed. 77% of premises in Kildare falls within the BLUE area i.e. within the commercial operator(s) coverage area. The remaining 23%, falls within the AMBER area and will be covered by the State Intervention.
My Department will shortly update the High Speed Broadband map to finalise the Intervention Area for the Procurement process, taking into account industry investments that have not materialised in Blue areas, together with new industry investments within the proposed State Intervention Area, along with concrete and credible commitments by industry for further new investments within the Intervention Area.
