Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 June 2026
116. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the way in which he plans to address poor mobile phone signal in parts of County Clare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44458/26]
View answer122. Deputy Seán Kyne asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the engagement his Department has had regarding mobile phone blackspots including the R336 Coast Road, Connemara, where coverage is very poor in Indreabhán and in An Spidéal areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44554/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 116 and 122 together.
While the Department has no role in developing county or locality-specific strategies for mobile coverage improvements, the Department’s Digital Connectivity Strategy published in 2022 sets ambitious targets for fixed and mobile connectivity. This Strategy is currently being updated.
In the liberalised and competitive Irish mobile telecoms market, network coverage is the responsibility of network operators, who operate on a commercial basis, regulated by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). These operators consistently prioritise improving their networks’ coverage. However, mobile service quality is not uniform in all areas as it must overcome varying challenges such as different geographical terrains, varying physical and natural obstructions as well as different user demands.
In 2023, ComReg completed a Multi-band Spectrum Award (MBSA2) to assign long term rights of use in four spectrum bands to enable operators to provide improved mobile services. The award of these MBSA2 licences represented a 46% increase in the harmonised spectrum assigned for the provision of wireless broadband services, including 4G and 5G, in Ireland and included significant coverage obligations for operators. Those licence obligations place a key focus on delivering improved coverage to population centres, rather than solely focusing on geographical coverage. They also focus on improving network coverage of the national primary road network.
ComReg confirms that call blocks, call drops, and network availability, on mobile networks, remain stable even with increasing traffic volumes. A call block is a call made to a number, but the call fails and does not connect; a call drop is an unexpected disconnection of an established phone call. ComReg is satisfied that mobile network operators are meeting their licence requirements over the whole network. It is expected that ComReg will conduct an assessment of operators’ compliance with their 3-year obligations under the MBSA2 licence this year.
Mobile networks operators continue to add new capacity to their networks using both their newly acquired radio spectrum and by upgrading the radio technologies on their networks.
Finally, ComReg updates its online national outdoor mobile coverage map at coveragemap.comreg.ie. This helps customers select the best service for them. Where customers experience poor coverage, they should contact the customer care team of their mobile phone operator to make a complaint. The complaint can then be escalated to ComReg if not resolved to the consumer's satisfaction within 10 days.
