Galway-Mayo duct.

clohamon · 30-01-2014 6:23pm #1

This dormant piece of infrastructure now appears to be on the go again.

The Department will be tendering for a Managed Service Entity to finish out and manage the duct/fibre for the next fifteen years. Its expected to require about €4.5M of State aid to get the job finished.

The towns of Castlebar, Westport, Ballina, Tuam, Claremorris and Ballinrobe will be excluded from access to the fibre because they are deemed to have basic and NGA services delivered from Eircom and others already.

The rest of the surrounding area (big ellipse) will be excluded from access by basic broadband services but may connect where an operator will be providing NGA services.

The map below shows the overall catchment for this backhaul infrastructure. The grey areas are the towns noted above

bealtine · 31-01-2014 2:55am

clohamon wrote: »

The Department will be tendering for a Managed Service Entity to finish out and manage the duct/fibre for the next fifteen years.

And this is *exactly* what nobody actually wants...

White Heart Loon · 31-01-2014 8:29am

bealtine wrote: »

And this is *exactly* what nobody actually wants...

What is this, like the west link toll bridge?

oscarBravo · 31-01-2014 11:50am

clohamon wrote: »

The towns of Castlebar, Westport, Ballina, Tuam, Claremorris and Ballinrobe will be excluded from access to the fibre because they are deemed to have basic and NGA services delivered from Eircom and others already.

Worse: in the case of Castlebar, Westport and Ballinrobe, they're excluded from access to the fibre because they have NGA services from Eircom alone. In other words, if a business in Castlebar or Westport has a requirement for gigabit services on separate backhaul networks for resiliency, that business can go **** itself.

It's possible that this project could have been implemented in a less useful way, but I'm struggling to think of one.

clohamon · 31-01-2014 7:55pm

oscarBravo wrote: »

It's possible that this project could have been implemented in a less useful way, but I'm struggling to think of one.

It seems Emerald Express have changed landing sites from Belmullet to Killala Bay. That just leaves Shell, the wave research centre, and the MANS as big ticket customers. Its not even clear if the MANS can use it in the restricted towns, even though e|net might end up being the MSE.

Looking at the Minister's reply to Michelle Mulherin its not actually clear that they will be going ahead with the tender.

clohamon · 04-06-2015 8:32am

Today is the big day (allegedly).

According to the Department's tender document they will identify the preferred candidate for this contract on June 4th. It goes on to detail a standstill period of two weeks and the appointment of the contractor on 22nd of June.

From the Minister on 10th Feb 2015.

The question of whether the duct should be extended to Belmullet will be considered in light of the anticipated commercial developments in the area and the proposed State intervention under the National Broadband Plan.

clohamon · 07-10-2015 1:35pm

clohamon wrote: »

Today is the big day (allegedly).

So much for that.

Alex White was in front of the Communications Committee today.

"We'll progress it as soon as ever that we can."

clohamon · 07-03-2016 1:07pm

Acting Minister White on RTE - Sean O'Rourke this morning, saying Galway - Mayo Duct is one of his main issues to deal with before leaving office.

clohamon · 05-07-2016 1:09pm

The new minister's briefing has some notes on access issues. This is the sixth minister that has been dealing with this.

Galway/Mayo Ducting Project
 Bord Gáis Éireann constructed 132kms of telecommunications ducting on behalf of the Department, alongside its gas pipeline from Galway to Mayo (location of the Shell terminal) and a further 24kms spur to the outskirts of Castlebar and Westport.

 In 2013, the Department received State Aid approval to operate, market and maintain the fibre in these ducts for use by the telecommunications market. Shell Exploration and Production Ireland Ltd (SEPIL) agreed to install the fibre in the ducts at no cost to the exchequer. This has largely been completed.

 The infrastructure will provide much-needed fibre in the Mayo area, an area which has been identified as having a major fibre-deficit. The fibre will allow telecommunication service providers to offer broadband services along the route of the pipeline.*

 GNI (formerly Bord Gáis Éireann) had agreed to obtain access rights from landowners along the route to lay, install and operate the infrastructure and to make these available to the Minister pursuant to the terms of a Licence Agreement. However in late 2015, it became apparent that there are outstanding issues in relation to some of the access rights obtained by GNI, which will need to be resolved before the fibre can be formally transferred to the Minister and an MSE appointed. Officials have been working with the Chief State Solicitor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office on measures to resolve this issue.

 A major transatlantic fibre optic cable has been commissioned by Aqua Comms. The company sought immediate access to the fibre, prior to the appointment of a Management Services Entity (MSE), to deliver services to a number of multinational companies based in Ireland. Officials worked with the CSSO and AGO on an interim solution to facilitate early access which has now been achieved.

 A process to procure a Management Services Entity to manage the fibre commenced in 2015 but was suspended pending resolution of access rights.

 There is a requirement for primary legislation to deal with outstanding access issues, and a new MSE procurement will also be required in the short term.

*This would be a controversial claim. The EC decision (see thread above) expressly excludes offering broadband services along the route of the fibre unless they are NGA services and don't encroach on any of the urban areas.

Galway-Mayo duct.

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