Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2017
1127. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the specific criteria used in designating specific geographic areas either blue or amber in the national broadband roll out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13619/17]
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 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 is a requirement under EU State Aid Guidelines. In 2014, following a comprehensive analysis and mapping process of high speed broadband availability across the entire country, the Department published the High Speed Broadband Map.
The Department has kept the map under review ever since, keeping track of both developments in the BLUE area and proposed new plans by commercial operators within the AMBER areas.
In late 2015, following consultation, the Department updated the map and published a Document "Managing the High Speed Broadband Map" which sets out the criteria, to be used to assess new commercial high speed broadband investment plans pre, during and post procurement. The criteria include technical, deployment and financial assessment criteria. The Document is available on my the Departments website: www.dccae.gov.ie/communications/SiteCollectionDocuments/Broadband/Updated%20Expert%20reports/Managing%20IA%20Map%20-%20Consultation%20Paper%20FINAL%2021-12-15.pdf.
In addition, the Department published the Heads of a legal Commitment Agreement for operators who wish their plans to be represented on the High Speed Broadband Map.
Together, the assessment criteria and the Commitment Agreement ensure that the veracity and robustness of proposed commercial deployment plans can be fully scrutinised ahead of any changes to the map.
