Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 March 2018
503. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the broadband access to a small business in a location (details supplied) in County Cork; when fibre optic broadband will be accessible to a person; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13763/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to 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 telecoms sector. Today, almost 7 out of 10 of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland have access to high speed broadband. This will increase to nearly 8 out of 10 premises by the end of this year and by 2020, 9 out of 10 premises will have access to a high speed broadband connection. This is being achieved via a combination of commercial investment and a State led intervention. The premise referred to by the Deputy is represented by way of an AMBER dot within a BLUE area on my Department’s High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. A high speed broadband service will therefore be delivered through the NBP State Intervention. This premise was one of approximately 84,500 premises reclassified as AMBER when the Map was updated in April 2017. This was due to commercial operator plans for the area not materialising. As a result high speed broadband services will now be delivered to the premises through the State led intervention under the NBP.
My Department is in a formal procurement process to select a company who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network in the State intervention area. That procurement process is now in its final stages.
My Department’s technical team has also carried out a desktop cellular path study in respect of the particular premises referred to by the Deputy which shows that there is a clear line of sight from the premise to a mast sited at Curraheen Stadium which is located 1.2 km from the premises. This mast is utilised by 3 retail mobile service operators. The various antennae on the mast should be capable of providing 4G (LTE) from one or all of the mobile service providers. Individuals can check with mobile operators regarding mobile services on offer. This may improve their connectivity in the interim period until the State led intervention delivers the future proofed solution directly to the premises.
Additionally, 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.
