Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 April 2025
303. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will put in place the necessary infrastructure to improve the broadband and mobile phone reception in Glenbeigh, County Kerry, as a matter of priority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20680/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn December 2022, Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy was published which supports the ambition outlined in the National Digital Strategy and set out a number of targets including that all Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028.
The Programme for Government 2025 also sets a number of targets which include the completion of the installation of high-speed fibre broadband to 1.1 million people, including homes, farms, and businesses nationwide, by 2026.
The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the Government's initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland.
In County Kerry over 19,000 premises are passed with high-speed fibre broadband network and 19,250 premises are available to order/pre-order, with 5,500 premises now connected. A further 9,000 premises in Kerry will be passed by NBI’s high speed fibre broadband by the end of the contract.
The Glenbeigh area is largely in the BLUE area on the broadband map which is available on my Department's website www.gov.ie/en/publication/5634d-national-broadband-plan-map/.
The BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high-speed broadband services. The Department defines high-speed broadband as a connection with minimum speeds of 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload.
The activities of commercial operators delivering high-speed broadband within BLUE areas are not planned or funded by the State and the Department has no statutory authority to intervene in that regard.
There may be a choice of operators offering this service in any given area. Further information in this regard is available at www.comreg.ie/compare/#/services. ?
As per records available online much of the Glenbeigh area has been included in Open Eir’s Full Fibre deployment programme which provides a full fibre Gigabit connection and premises in the area can now order full fibre gigabit connection with speeds up to 2Gbps.
If a person lives in the BLUE area and after contacting their Retail Service Provider are told they cannot get access to greater than 30Mbps, they should raise a query via the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) webform at https://secure.dccae.gov.ie/forms/NBP-Customer-Service.aspx and the Department will escalate with the commercial operator to investigate this matter further.
The AMBER area on the broadband map is to be served by the network deployed under the NBP State led intervention. NBI have advised that the premises outside Glenbeigh comes under the Glanbehy Electoral District (E.D.). There are 343 premises included in the Glanbehy E.D., 340 of which are in Network Build and are divided between the Glencar and Kells Deployment Areas (DA’s). Both DA’s and all 340 premises have an anticipated connection timeframe of between July and December 2026. Residents may register for updates via the NBI website at https://nbi.ie/eoi/.
The roll-out of infrastructure for mobile telecommunications services in Ireland is primarily a matter for mobile network operators, operating on a commercial basis in a liberalised market, regulated by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). ComReg is statutorily independent in the exercise of its functions in accordance with section 11 of the Communications Regulation Act 2002.
The Multi-Band Spectrum Award 2 (MBSA2) was a significant radio spectrum award process run by ComReg which, in early 2023, led to the award of long term (20 years) spectrum rights suitable for providing new mobile broadband services and increasing network capacity. Significant coverage obligations apply under these licences and the conditions around coverage were the subject of some discussion between my officials and ComReg with a key focus on delivering improved coverage to population centres rather than solely focusing on geographical coverage.
Mobile network operators are continuously enhancing and improving their network coverage in line with their MBSA2 licence obligations. They continue to add new capacity to their networks using their newly acquired radio spectrum. The timing of the improvements delivered by mobile operators are influenced in part by their ability to acquire and build new sites for increased coverage.
To assist consumers to choose the network provider that best meets their needs, ComReg continually updates and enhances its online national outdoor mobile coverage map (available at: https://coveragemap.comreg.ie/map) which provides information on mobile network operators’ outdoor coverage for 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G mobile networks.
While my Department has no role in developing site-specific strategies for mobile coverage improvements, the Department’s Digital Connectivity Strategy published in 2022 sets ambitious targets for fixed and mobile connectivity. A refresh of this Strategy will be undertaken later this year.
