Thomas Byrne
Ceist:461. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when a company (details supplied) will provide infrastructure for broadband in an area. [8100/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 20 February 2018
Ceisteanna (461)
Freagraí scríofa
My Department’s technical team has contacted openeir to query the status of the premises referred to by the Deputy under openeir’s ongoing deployment of rural high speed broadband. Once a response from openeir is to hand, my Department will contact the Deputy’s office directly to confirm the categorisation of this particular premises in openeir’s plans.
For those premises in the AMBER area on the Map, my Department is in a formal procurement process to select a company who will rollout a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. That procurement process is now in its final stages. “Detailed Solutions” have been evaluated by the NBP specialist team. This is the last stage of the procurement process before moving to the final tender stage, which will be followed by the appointment of a preferred bidder and contract signature. When the procurement process reaches a satisfactory conclusion and a subsidy level has been approved by Government, a contract will be awarded and the network rollout will commence.
In the interim, practical initiatives will continue to be addressed through the work of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce to address obstacles and improve connectivity in respect of existing and future mobile phone and broadband services.
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.