NBP: National Broadband Plan Announced

Capital Plan: Initial €275 million broadband allocation “demonstrates commitment to conclusively deal with Ireland’s connectivity challenge”





Tuesday, 29 September 2015



Minister for Communications Alex White today (Tuesday) welcomed the capital investment plan allocation of €275 million for the National Broadband Plan. He said the funding would provide the initial stimulus required to deliver high speed broadband access to every home, school and business by 2020.



Minister White said the €275 million did not represent the full cost of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) which would likely be spread over 20 years, well beyond the period of the capital investment plan published today. The Government is on target to go to tender on the state intervention element of the NBP towards the end of 2015, and Minister White said he would not outline the total level of Government funding envisaged until the tender process was complete.



Minister White said: “The capital plan funding announced today demonstrates the Government’s strong commitment to this important project, which aims to conclusively deal with Ireland’s connectivity challenges and put us at the top of the international league for quality high-speed broadband. The €275 million will provide the initial stimulus for the early years of the state intervention under the National Broadband Plan.



“This is an indication of the scale of the investment envisaged, but it is not the full cost. The full 20-year cost of the programme will emerge out of the tendering process, which will commence as planned at the end of this year. In the meantime I will not speculate about the final level of Government funding because, if I did, it could influence the tender process and drive the cost to the taxpayer up rather than down.”



It is expected that the funds allocated today will be used to draw down EU funding of €75 million, which has already been agreed. The Department of Communications is also at an advanced stage of exploring the scope for further European funding through the European Investment Bank and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund.



Minister White said the NBP was on course to ensure that every home, school and business in Ireland had access to high-speed broadband by 2020, with 85% of premises covered by 2018. He said he would be able to proceed to formal procurement by the end of 2015, because all the milestones set for the delivery of the project had been met:



· A draft Intervention Strategy was published for public consultation in July 2015, along with seven expert reports. Some 36 submissions were subsequently received from industry, local authorities, stakeholder groups and individuals


· The Department of Communications has submitted its State Aid pre-notification to the European Commission in July 2015, as is required under EU rules


· The Department is currently updating its high-speed broadband map to take account of new industry investment proposals, with a view to publishing an updated map later this year. The updated map will determine the final scope of the required state intervention to deliver high-speed broadband access to areas that will not be served by commercial providers.


ENDS



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When he says "promising that 85pc of premises will be covered by 2018
Is that 85% of the total premises in Ireland or 85% of the premises which don't already have high speed broadband

dbit wrote: »

Total cost to be spread over 20 years lol my son is 7 hell be 27 by the time they finish and hopefully not living in ireland . Jaysus piss up in a brewery.

Maybe all this means is that there will be an annual government subsidy element for the NBP customers, and less of an upfront payment, and no change to the rollout schedule That's the optimistic take.

Gonzo wrote: »

I am so lucky that my home will be one of the 300,000 to get Eir FTTH at some point over the next 5 years as I wouldn't like to be banking on this NBP.

Except that there's absolutely no requirement on Eir to provide you with that service within 5 years...that's the issue this has caused.

Gonzo wrote: »

I think the reason they made the blue lines was not to lose out on a large market share over the next 50 to 100 years if the NBP was awarding all these areas to some other company. They've already lost most of Dublin to UPC/Virgin Media.

This time around I do have faith that Eir will roll out their FTTH to most promised locations over the next 5 years tho it could stretch into 2021 or even 2022.

The goverment just need to update the map so I can see if I'm getting FTTH of eir

ACLFC7 wrote: »

When he says "promising that 85pc of premises will be covered by 2018
Is that 85% of the total premises in Ireland or 85% of the premises which don't already have high speed broadband

Taken from NBP website.

"The Intervention Strategy proposes that 60% of the premises in the Intervention Area are covered by December 2018 (85% of the country) and 100% by December 2020."

My own house falls within the NBP area so looking like a few more years before I can upgrade from westnets 2mb wisp.

Siena Gigantic Backyard wrote: »

It looks like openeir's masterstroke of releasing a map with some blue lines drawn on it has succeeded in taking those areas out of the NBP. Now they may be free to connect these areas if and when they see fit without fear of penalty clauses or government fines for missing deadlines. Remember broadbandtoz?

Mm,

I had a look at the eir map with the blue lines.

I am approx in an island with blue lines 2km away to the east of me, and 2k to the west of me.

That surely has to kill the viability of ftth in my area even via the nbp ?

Unless of course if the nbp areas are allowed to piggyback on top of eirs rural fibre network and just extend it out ?

Gonzo wrote: »

I just knew it, that the government would start stalling on this or cutting funding. An insane decision just like the decision to bin the plans for the dart underground.

While government spending goes into other areas which I won't name wasting so much of tax payers money. This really makes my blood boil.

With this big cut on the NBP they will probably opt for some cheap alternative.

I am so lucky that my home will be one of the 300,000 to get Eir FTTH at some point over the next 5 years as I wouldn't like to be banking on this NBP.

Should have come as no surprise to anyone. It would not be Irish Government if there wasn't promises made that are then reigned back in.

This government is operating a very clear model of short term planning, to put things in place that are new and shiny quickly, so they can lay their claim to it, and not leave something to be finished when another government might be in power.

It's a totally political decision, and the typical short term, power securing moves that keep so many areas of this country stuck in a cycle of "out dated".

Broadband really isn't a hot topic for them that would give them enough kudos if it went through, or cause enough ruptions if it didnt. So no surprise the funding got slashed by nearly 50%.

This government is clearly going to dump a load of wasted money on the City Centre to Dublin Airport connection, which is a total waste of money, but is something new and shiny that can probably be completed within the next lifetime of government(which most likely will be FG in part) so they can reap the credit when it finishes.

It's just another item on a long list of things that were promised, reigned back in, and evidence of this government being a total spoof about change and longterm planning. They are pretty clueless when left to their own devices.

Am I reading things incorrectly, because I see no 'rolling back' of promises.

There was a committment of some €510 million for NBP when the NBP coverage was to have been ~700,000 premises.


Both eir and Siro have indicated that they will (commercially) provide service to a good part of those premises. Eir have said 300,000 I believe, so let us say Siro does an extra 100,000 (to allow for dual supply to some).


So that leaves the gov to support connection to 300k premises and not the 700k.


That surely deserves a reduction in the estimate of the cost of supporting the NBP?

...... or am I misinterpreting things? .....