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National Broadband Plan Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2019

Tuesday, 15 October 2019

Ceisteanna (515, 516, 517)

Timmy Dooley

Ceist:

515. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of premises within the dark blue area of the national broadband plan for which commercial operators have indicated their intention to provide a service in tabular form; the number of premises indicated by each commercial operator; the percentage of the intervention area covered in a recent consultation on the mapping process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41638/19]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Timmy Dooley

Ceist:

516. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of a consultation process of the map of the national broadband plan undertaken with commercial operators; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41639/19]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Timmy Dooley

Ceist:

517. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the mechanism by which a commercial operator can inform National Broadband Ireland of a planned commercial operator within the intervention area; if National Broadband Ireland will be allowed to roll out fibre in which a commercial roll-out is already under way; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41640/19]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

I propose to take Questions Nos. 515 to 517, inclusive, together.

The commercial or dark blue area represented on the NBP Map currently has 76% of premises nationally with over 1.8 million premises included, where commercial operators have indicated their intention to provide a high speed broadband service. Commercially sensitive coverage data has been provided to my Department by commercial operators and this data have been anonymised to produce the NBP Map. As such, the number of premises in the dark blue area is not available by reference to each commercial operator but as an aggregated number where at least one operator and in many cases more than one operator is providing high speed broadband services.

As a State intervention, the National Broadband Plan must comply with the requirements of the European Commission’s Guidelines on the application of the State aid rules to broadband networks. The Guidelines require, amongst other things, that Member States carry out a detailed mapping exercise and public consultation process in particular to identify as far as reasonably possible those areas where intervention is required.

Since July 2013, my Department has engaged in an ongoing and extensive process of mapping and monitoring of broadband availability in Ireland. This has been supported by a number of public consultations from 2014 to date. This process has included a review of operator networks in line with the assessment criteria published in 2015.

My Department recently consulted publicly to close the ongoing mapping exercise, seeking submissions from operators who wish to have their existing high speed broadband networks or who have developed plans to invest in high speed broadband networks over the next 7 years, to be included on the Department’s High Speed Broadband Map. The scope of this consultation included all premises currently included in the Intervention Area as well as all those premises marked as blue on the NBP map. In addition, the Department had identified approximately 46,000 premises in blue areas of the Map where high speed broadband services may not have materialised and sought information in relation to these, or other similar premises, from operators, or the public. That consultation closed on 30 September.

As part of the consultation, over 180 submissions have been received from a variety of stakeholders, including 30 from large and small telecoms operators, with the remainder from local authority broadband officers and members of the public.

Operator submissions will be assessed against the Department’s published assessment criteria. Operators submitting planned investments were required to sign a declaration that they would enter into a Commitment Agreement with the Department if their plans satisfied the assessment criteria and were accepted by the Department as being concrete and credible.

Following the conclusion of the Department’s assessment, the non-confidential versions of all submissions will be published, as soon as possible, on the Department’s website together with the outcome of the assessment.

The consultation will identify where an existing high speed broadband service is available from a commercial operator along with where there are concrete plans to provide such a service. These areas will not be included in the Intervention Area. The outcome will set out the Intervention Area which National Broadband Ireland will be required to deliver as part of the NBP intervention contract. The Department is in the final stages of closing out the contract and will in due course publish a non-confidential version of the contract which sets out the relevant provisions to allow for changes to the number of premises up or down.

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