Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 May 2018
406. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to the fact that average broadband speeds in parts of Cobh are inadequate and that residents and businesses in so-called blue areas cannot access high-speed broadband. [19923/18]
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. Since this Government came into office almost 400,000 additional premises 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.
In April 2017 I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. This map shows the areas targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).
The Map is colour coded and searchable by address/eircode:
- The AMBER areas represent the target areas for the proposed State led Intervention under the NBP and are the subject of an ongoing procurement process.
- The BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services.
- The LIGHT BLUE areas represent eir's commercial rural deployment plans to roll-out high speed broadband to 300,000 premises as part of a Commitment Agreement signed with me in April 2017.
Premises in the Cobh area fall into all of these categories. Individuals can check which category their premises falls into by going to my Department's website www.broadband.gov.ie and entering their eircode into the High Speed Broadband Map.
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.
In April 2017, 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. Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available at http://fibrerollout.ie/eircode-lookup/. A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department's website www.dccae.gov.ie.
Where someone living in a Blue area is unable to obtain a high speed broadband service, I would ask you to please encourage them to email my Department at broadband@dccae.gov.ie with their eircode and details of the service providers they have contacted and my officials will respond.
Prior to the roll-out of the State Intervention network, 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 improving. These Broadband Officers are acting as single points of contact in local authorities for their communities. A link to a list of the local Broadband Officers can be accessed here http://www.ruralireland.ie/policies/national-broadband-plan/
