I propose to take Questions Nos. 362, 363, 365, 367 and 375 together.
The Government's National Broadband Plan will provide high speed broadband access (minimum 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector so that to date approximately 1.4m or 61% of the 2.3m premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband of a minimum of 30 Megabits per second and this footprint is expanding.
In April, eir signed a agreement with me committing them to follow through on their commercial plans to provide new high speed broadband infrastructure to 300,000 premises in rural areas. eir has committed to doing this work over a 90 week period with an average of 500 premises passed per day. A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department's website www.dccae.gov.ie. The decision by eir to invest in infrastructure to deploy high speed broadband services to an additional 300,000 premises in rural Ireland was taken by eir on commercial grounds. Neither I nor the Department have a statutory authority to direct eir in this regard.
Quarterly updates on progress of the eir 300k roll-out will be published on my Departments website. The Q1 figures have been verified by my Department and the eir roll-out is in line with the Commitment Agreement.
In April I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. This map finalises the State Intervention Area for the procurement process and is an important milestone in the procurement process. The Map shows the extent of the State Intervention area and also the areas targeted for commercial services. The Map, which is searchable by address or eircode, has been developed by my Department using extensive information obtained from commercial operators and will be updated to show quarterly progress of the eir roll-out.
- The BLUE areas represent those areas where commercial telecommunications providers are either currently delivering or have indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services,
- The AMBER areas on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the areas that will require State Intervention and are the subject of the current procurement process.
There are 89,565 premises in County Kildare, 13,371 or 15% of which fall within an AMBER area on the map and so will be covered by the State led Intervention under the NBP. The remaining 76,194 are BLUE area premises with 9,131 of these included in eir's 300K rural roll-out (showing as LIGHT BLUE on the map).
54% of the premises in Sarsfieldstown in Julianstown County Meath fall within an AMBER area and will be part of the State led Intervention under the NBP. The remaining 46% will be covered by the eir 300k roll-out.
The breakdown in the townland of Ballymore, County Westmeath includes 98% falling within the eir 300k coverage areas with the remaining 2% being covered by the State Intervention.
Information on eir's planned rural deployment is available from eir at http://fibrerollout.ie/eircode-lookup/.
The village of Castlebaldwin, County Sligo falls entirely within a BLUE area and will be provided by commercial operators.
I encourage members of the general public who are in a BLUE area but who cannot access a high speed broadband service to contact my Department at broadband@dccae.gov.ie, quoting their eircode and query details.
Information on whether specific premises are in a BLUE or AMBER area can be obtained by accessing the High Speed Broadband Map and entering the premises Eircode at www.broadband.gov.ie.
My Department is in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network within the State Intervention Area. The State Intervention network will be a wholesale network and retail service providers will be able to use the network to provide enhanced broadband services to their customers.
The procurement process is being intensively managed, to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland, for at least 25 years. The three bidders have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution. A fibre-to-the-home solution means that householders and businesses may get speeds not just of 30 Megabits per second but much higher, potentially up to 1000 Megabits per second.
With the finalisation of the map and following extensive dialogue with bidders, the procurement is progressing to the next stage. On 20 June 2017 my Department wrote to the three bidders in the NBP procurement process inviting them to submit their “Detailed Solutions” by 26 September 2017. The 'Detailed Solutions' stage is the last stage of the procurement process before Final Tenders.
The timeframe for the procurement continues to be dependent on a range of factors including the complexities that may be encountered by the procurement team and bidders, during the procurement process. The Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best roll-out strategy, in order to target areas of particularly poor service, business needs and/or high demand.
The rate of demand for data services has increased exponentially in the last four years and this presents a continuing challenge for telecommunication operators, regulators and policy makers both in Ireland and internationally. Recognising this challenge, I specifically included in the Programme for Government a commitment to a Mobile Phone and Broadband Task force. In July 2016, I established the Task Force to identify immediate solutions to broadband and mobile phone coverage deficits and investigate how better services could be provided to consumers, prior to the full build and roll-out of the network planned under the National Broadband Plan State intervention. The report of the Task Force was published in December and is available on my Department's website.
In producing this report, the Task Force worked with Departments, local authorities, ComReg, State agencies, the telecoms industry and other key stakeholders. The report contains 40 actions that will alleviate some of the telecommunications deficits across Ireland and the implementation programme on mobile phone and broadband access identifies 19 of these actions as areas where immediate and direct action by Departments and State agencies can ensure accelerated benefits to consumers.
In order to maintain momentum created by the Task Force, I established an Implementation Group to drive and monitor the implementation of the actions, bringing together all key stakeholders identified in the Task Force report with responsibility for delivery. This group will be formally reporting every 90 days on progress made on all actions. I published the first such quarterly progress report on 13 June 2017, which is available on my Department's website at http://www.dccae.gov.ie/documents/Taskforce%20Q1%20Progress%20Report.pdf and which shows that considerable progress has been made, particularly in relation to the implementation of actions identified for Q1 2017.
The work of the Task Force will also assist local authorities in preparing for the roll-out of the new NBP network once contracts are in place.
In addition, following regulations which I signed last year, ComReg recently announced the results of its auction for the 3.6GHz radio spectrum band, which means an 86% increase in spectrum capacity to meet the growing demand for mobile and wireless broadband services across rural and urban areas. The Regulator has awarded 15 year licences for the rights of use in this band which will provide a degree of stability and create future investment certainty. Spectrum was also awarded in lots covering 9 urban and rural regions across the country.
In my Department's Estimates for 2017, I have secured an €8 million provision for RTE to allow it to free up the 700 MHz spectrum band. ComReg in turn will make plans to allocate this spectrum to provide for significantly enhanced mobile coverage. The 700 MHz band is particularly suited to rural environments where the signal can travel long distances.
These initiatives should assist in enhancing the quality of mobile phone and data services across Ireland and particularly in rural Ireland.
