Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 October 2022
178. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the engagement that has occurred between National Broadband Ireland and third-party broadband companies in relation to providing additional fibre broadband infrastructure to premises that do not have a fibre broadband connection in place and are situated in the amber area in which the private operators have capacity to provide a service. [52796/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraNational Broadband Ireland (NBI) have advised that they have run a tender process for the provision of alternative solutions that would complement the NBI build, while delivering the NBP specified Broadband Product and its associated SLA's. Five providers passed the Prequalification stage and were provided with the Tender documentation to respond. Three of the qualified bidders provided a response to the tender. One of the three subsequently withdrew from the process, leaving 2 providers to enter the Product Testing phase of the Tender process.
The Product Testing trials to validate that the proposed products meet the NBP specification are in progress at present. Subject to successful completion of the technical validation commercial evaluation of the proposals will begin.
