Consultant awarded €325,000 cheque, er I mean contract

lucernarian

Fresh from SiliconRepublic:

Telecoms consultant Mason Communications Ireland has emerged as the winner of a €325,000-plus contract to advise the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources on the National Broadband Strategy, the successor to the failed Group Broadband Scheme.
The contract, which has been awarded to Mason by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), which is supporting the Department of Communications on the project, was for technical, commercial and financial advice relating to the National Broadband Scheme.

The total value of the contract is €325,556 (excluding Vat). The awarding of the contract appeared as an award notice on the Department of Finance's eTenders public procurement website.

The Group Broadband Scheme, which was modelled on the Group Water Scheme of the Fifties and Sixties, was scrapped by the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey TD due to poor take-up.

However, communities that had opted for the scheme cited bureaucratic hurdles and foot dragging as a reason for the scheme’s failure.

In November, siliconrepublic.com revealed that only 6,000 subscribers out of an envisaged 90,460 subscribers in rural areas that are not served by telecom players were receiving services under the Group Broadband Scheme..

Documents seen by siliconrepublic.com showed that out of a total amount of €5.9m in grants for 162 approved projects under the County and Group Broadband Scheme, a mere €785,755 was actually drawn down by the applications.

The National Broadband Scheme will replace the County and Group Broadband Scheme and it is understood that the emphasis will be on companies that have the expertise to see a broadband project through as opposed to leaving it solely in the hands of community volunteers.

Responding to a parliamentary question in February, Dempsey said: “The facilitation of broadband coverage across the entire county continues to be a key priority.

“Despite Government and private investment in broadband, there are areas of the country where the private sector is unable to justify the commercial provision of broadband connectivity. Accordingly, the new National Broadband Scheme will aim to provide a broadband service to these areas.”

At a conference on next-generation networks (NGNs) organised by ComReg last month, Dempsey said: “We cannot let a significant section of the country lag behind as the rest of us race on.

“For that reason a steering group of my department and ComReg is currently finalising the scheme to bring a broadband service to parts of the country where the private sector will be unable to justify the commercial provision of broadband connectivity.

“The National Broadband Scheme (NBS) when it is fully rolled out will ensure that all reasonable requests for broadband from houses and premises in rural areas are met,” Dempsey said.

By John Kennedy

Proactive democracy for ya. Don't listen to the consumers. Write out a cheque for a company to tell you that eircom should get a fat cheque. Does anyone think that the govt. will go to the hassle of using alternative providers?

The dog's tail (PDs) are as usual quiet when the govt. themselves are not encouraging competition.

rahtkennades

What's the point.... <shaking head> It wouldn't matter if the GBS had been a roaring success, they'd still choke it off and create a new strategy.

Don't forget, politicians don't see merit in doing a good job quietly. much better (especially a few weeks before an election) to make a grand new announcement. That way, when the people ask why you've made a complete hash of things so far, you can point to your 'Great New Plan'.

I would say vote them out, but I have a funny feeling that the other shower would be just as inept.

Oh well...

damien

How many Group Broadband Schemes could have happened with that amount of cash? Group Broadband Schemes who were told "wait a little longer, money is on the way" for 2 years or more. Sickening.

jwt

all reasonable requests for broadband from houses and premises

I call b u l l s h i t !

John

lucernarian

You can buy a lot of wireless gear for that kind of dosh. And you could get a wireless system up and running in the amount of time that the consultants will push paper and waste ink, in all likelihood.

Dempsey is once again the cute hoor with the reasonable request for broadband crap. Every request for 512 kbit or 1 Mbit broadband is a reasonable request. With today's technology, there is no need for satellite broadband in this country.

po0k

What about spectrum license costs?
Or do you expect 2.4Ghz to carry us all into 2010?

watty

That's roughly money for install 2,500 people with BB.

clohamon

To_be_confirmed wrote:

Fresh from SiliconRepublic:

“For that reason a steering group of my department and ComReg is currently finalising the scheme to bring a broadband service to parts of the country where the private sector will be unable to justify the commercial provision of broadband connectivity.

and this also this from a PQ 08/03/07

This scheme will be confined to areas of the country that are not yet served by any broadband service provider...

All elements of the proposed scheme are currently being considered and work on the design of an appropriate tender is under way.

So if the scheme is already being finalised what will the consultants be doing?

bealtine

clohamon wrote:

So if the scheme is already being finalised what will the consultants be doing?

drawing down cheques?

lucernarian

SyxPak wrote:

What about spectrum license costs?
Or do you expect 2.4Ghz to carry us all into 2010?

There is relatively cheap spectrum to be had, though I'm not sure if there are any 3.5 GHz licences left for example.

I'm not sure of licence prices but 325,000 would go some way towards license costs at the very least. And it's almost half of the money which was paid out by the GBS. 6000 people are being served by that €780,000. Not a bad use of taxpayers money methinks.

oscarBravo

The Group Broadband Scheme, which was modelled on the Group Water Scheme of the Fifties and Sixties, was scrapped by the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey TD due to poor take-up.

...and, of course, the "poor take-up" had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that no applications were accepted after April 2005.

...it is understood that the emphasis will be on companies that have the expertise to see a broadband project through as opposed to leaving it solely in the hands of community volunteers.

With a small number of exceptions, it wasn't left solely in the hands of community volunteers. Who makes this stuff up?

To_be_confirmed wrote:

...I'm not sure if there are any 3.5 GHz licences left for example.

It's not a question of whether there are any left; it's a question of whether it's possible to squeeze any in between the dead zones around the existing licence areas.

cgarvey

I see good oul "reasonable" is there again. No hard metrics, no hard limits (upper or lower). We use reasonable a lot (in USO terms especially), but who polices what's reasonable? Not ComReg. Next guess? eircom, correct!