Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 October 2017
235. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the timeframe for broadband services to be available in counties Cavan and Monaghan; the position regarding fibre installation; the position regarding the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45412/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe 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.
In April, eir signed an agreement with me committing them to follow through on their commercial plans to provide new high speed broadband infrastructure to an additional 300,000 premises in rural areas. eir has committed to doing this work over a 90 week period with an average of 500 premises passed per day. A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department's website www.dccae.gov.ie .
Quarterly updates on progress of the eir 300k roll-out will be published on my Department's website available at http://www.dccae.gov.ie/documents/County%20Statistics.pdf which includes a full set of county statistics. eir has confirmed to my Department that 101,000 premises have been passed as at the end of September 2017. The 300,000 figure includes c.7,800 premises in County Cavan and c.4,600 in County Monaghan. eir will continue to roll-out high speed broadband to the remaining premises including those premises in Counties Cavan and Monaghan as part of this Agreement between now and the end of 2018. Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at http://fibrerollout.ie/eircode-lookup/
In April I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. This map finalises the State Intervention Area for the procurement process and shows the extent of the State Intervention area and also the areas targeted for commercial services. Individuals can search the map by entering their eircode/address.
- The BLUE areas represent those areas where commercial telecommunications providers are either currently delivering or have indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services and includes eir’s planned 300k rural deployment depicted Light BLUE
- The AMBER areas on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the areas that will be part of the State led Intervention and are the subject of the current procurement process.
The position in relation to the areas referred to by the Deputy is set out below:
There are c. 42,000 premises in County Cavan, of which c17,000 will benefit from the State led Intervention under the NBP. The remaining c25,000 premises are located in the commercial BLUE area and will be served by commercial operators. This figure includes the c7,800 premises that fall within eir’s plans to deliver rural high speed broadband between now and end 2018 (Light BLUE on map).
There are c33,000 premises in Co Monaghan, of which c16,000 premises will benefit from the State led Intervention under the NBP. The remaining c17,000 premises are located in the commercial BLUE area and will be served by commercial operators. This figure includes the c4,600 premises that fall within eir’s plans to deliver rural high speed broadband between now and end 2018 (Light BLUE on map).
My Department is engaged in an on-going procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out the new high speed broadband network for the State led intervention. A significant milestone in that process was reached in September with the submission of "Detailed Solutions" by two bidders. This is the last stage before receipt of final tenders and progression to the appointment of a preferred bidder(s). The timeframe for completion of the State Intervention procurement process is dependent on a range of factors, including the complexities that may be encountered by the procurement team and bidders.
To improve both mobile and broadband services in rural Ireland in advance of the roll-out of the high speed broadband network to be built in the State intervention area I established, in July 2016, a Taskforce to identify solutions which can be implemented in the short, medium and long term to alleviate mobile phone and broadband coverage deficits, to identify priority areas for roll-out and investigate how better services could be provided to consumers. These solutions will enhance the existing services prior to the full build and roll-out of the network planned under the NBP State led intervention.
Under this Taskforce, engagement between telecommunications operators and local authorities through the Broadband Officers is continuing to strengthen. These Broadband Officers are acting as single points of contact in local authorities for their communities. The appointment of these officers is already reaping rewards in terms of ensuring a much greater degree of consistency in engagements with operators and clearing obstacles to developing infrastructure. There is a link to a list of these local Broadband Officers on my Department's website.
