Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 October 2017
232. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of homes that are in the light blue areas of the national broadband plan map that have been connected since the initiation of this phase of the plan, by county. [45402/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra233. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of homes in the amber area of the national broadband plan that are awaiting internet connections. [45403/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra234. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the implementation status of the national broadband plan. [45404/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 232 to 234, inclusive, together.
The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) will ensure high speed broadband access (minimum 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecommunications sector so that to date approximately 1.5m or 65% of the 2.3m premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband and this footprint is expanding. By 2020 it is expected that 90% of premises in Ireland will have access to high speed broadband.
My Department's High Speed Broadband Map, available at www.broadband.gov.ie, categorises premises into 3 colours.
- The AMBER areas on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the parts of the country that will require State Intervention to access high speed broadband. There are approximately 540,000 premises in this area.
- The BLUE areas are where commercial telecommunications providers are either currently delivering or have indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services.
- LIGHT BLUE areas are part of eir's planned rural deployment of high speed broadband to 300,000 premises.
The procurement process to identify a bidder(s) for the State Intervention or AMBER area is well underway, having moved to its final stages in September with the submission of "Detailed Solutions" by two bidders.
In April, I signed a Commitment Agreement with eir in relation to its plans to provide high speed broadband to 300,000 premises in rural areas on a commercial basis. eir has committed to completing the roll-out by the end of 2018. Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at http://fibrerollout.ie/eircode-lookup/
Evaluation by my Department of the Q3 update for eir's rural deployment is at an advanced stage and indicates that eir has met its Q3 target of 101,000 premises passed. County by county statistics are available on my Departments website for Q2 and can be viewed at http://www.dccae.gov.ie/documents/County%20Statistics.pdf. The statistics for Q3 will be published on my Department's website in the coming weeks.
