Thomas Byrne
Ceist:232. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when broadband availability and quality will increase in rural County Meath. [41506/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 10 October 2019
Ceisteanna (232)
Freagraí scríofa
Every home, farm, school and business in Ireland will have access to high speed broadband – no matter where they are located – following the Government’s decision to approve the appointment of a preferred bidder to the National Broadband Plan. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment across the country, and a State intervention in those areas where commercial operators acting alone are unlikely to invest. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector. In 2012, less than 700,000, or 30% of Irish premises had access to high speed broadband. Today, 76% of the 2.4 million premises in Ireland can access high speed broadband.
The High Speed Broadband Map, which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie, 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 NBP. The Map is colour coded and searchable by address and Eircode
The following table outlines the number of premises in Meath where access to a high speed broadband connection is, or will be, delivered by commercial operators (BLUE/LIGHT BLUE) and those where access to this vital service will be delivered under the State led intervention (AMBER).
|
AMBER |
BLUE |
LIGHT BLUE |
|
|
County Name |
Premises within the NBP State Intervention Area |
Premises within Commercial Operator’s Area |
Premises within eir's commercial rural deployment |
|
County Meath |
20,713 (24%) |
65,098 (75%) |
1,183 (1%) |
|
Meath East |
10,716 (27%) |
28,696 (71%) |
720 (2%) |
|
Nationally |
546,982 (23%) |
1,816,639 (76%) |
27,938 (1%) |
Information on a county by county basis with a breakdown of coverage across the townlands in every county is available on my Department’s website at www.dccae.gov.ie/communications/en-ie/Broadband/Pages/County-and-Townland-Maps.aspx.
The State intervention is the subject of the procurement process to engage a company to build, operate and maintain the NBP State intervention network. In May I brought a recommendation to Government to confer Preferred Bidder status on Granahan McCourt, the remaining bidder in the NBP procurement process and Government agreed to this.
The Government Decision of 7 May 2019 means that it is intended to award the State Intervention contract to the Bidder. This award is subject to contract close, including finalisation of financial and legal documents. Deployment of the NBP State Intervention network will commence shortly after that.
The Bidder has indicated that the NBP State intervention will take an estimated 7 years from the beginning of deployment.
A deployment plan will be made available by the Bidder once the contract is signed. In the first year of roll out, the Bidder will deploy approximately 300 Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) across all counties. It is anticipated that between 7 and 23 BCPs will be deployed in each county. BCPs will provide a community based high speed broadband service, enhancing online participation and allowing for the establishment of digital work hubs in these locations.
The Bidder is aiming to pass 133,000 premises at the end of the second year, with 70-100,000 passed each year thereafter until roll out is completed.