Ryan is Acutely Aware ( or so they say)

Sponge Bob

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=SEN20080410.XML&Dail=30&Ex=All&Page=5

OK, Senator Leps up .

Senator Maria Corrigan: I thank the Cathaoirleach for giving me the opportunity to raise the matter of the provision of broadband in Glencullen in Dublin. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources recently had the opportunity to visit the offices of ComReg. It was a very interesting and informative visit. ComReg outlined to the committee the very heartening news that the provision of broadband in Ireland is rapidly increasing and is now falling within the average on the international tables of broadband provision, having got off to a very slow start. That was very heartening to hear, but we still have some way to go.

ComReg indicated it would be very surprised if there were parts of Dublin where it was not possible to avail of some form of broadband, whether cable or wireless. Glencullen is one of those parts. The pity of the matter and the reason I raise it today is that over the past six months, Eircom has spent approximately €100,000 on providing fibre-optic cables from the nearest village, Stepaside, to Glencullen to facilitate broadband provision. However, Eircom installed what is known as a cabinet but unfortunately it is not adjacent to the cabinet that holds the lines for the village of Glencullen, which is beside the local school. It will cost another €10,000 to €20,000 to complete the link but Eircom has indicated that it has no immediate plans to complete the provision of broadband.
Glencullen is the highest village in Ireland and is located on a steep hill. For this reason, it is not possible to obtain wireless broadband there. It is completely dependent on the completion of the final section of wiring. If a company has spent €100,000 on installing the basic fibre-optic cables required and only requires a further small amount of cabling to the cost of up to €20,000, it seems an awful shame that it would not just complete the job. This would ensure the library, school and the surrounding village has the same access to broadband services as the rest of Dublin.

Nobody there from The Department, O Cuivs deppity leps up.

Might I say that this is a rather different reply than the standard Ryan lies, no claim is made for 90% coverage and no guff about the sector being liberalised and responsible for provision as Ryan normally does, Carey may have refused to spout the lies Ryan normally spouts .

Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (Deputy Pat Carey): I am taking the debate on behalf of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and I will address the House on the question of broadband in the Glencullen area.

The provision of broadband services is a major priority for the Government.

In this context, the primary role of the Government is to formulate regulatory and infrastructure policies to facilitate the provision of high quality telecommunications services by competing private sector service providers.



The broadband market in Ireland is fully liberalised and regulated where appropriate by ComReg, the independent Commission for Communications Regulation. Ireland’s growth in broadband penetration has continued to improve during 2007.


Almost 20 service providers offer products to more than 85% of the population through a combination of DSL, fixed-wireless, cable, fibre-optic, and mobile technologies and as a result the average cost of broadband continues to fall.



Fixed wireless broadband is available in the Glencullen area of Dublin, subject to survey.


The latest market report from ComReg reported a total of 886,300 broadband subscribers at end of 2007. This figure includes mobile broadband and corresponds to a penetration rate of “20.5 subscribers per 100 of population” and represents a 12% increase on the third quarter in 2007 and a 71% increase on the same quarter in 2006.



Ireland continues to be one of the fastest growing broadband markets in Europe and has the fastest growing broadband rate penetration in the OECD.


The State has undertaken initiatives to address the gaps in broadband coverage where the market has clearly failed. Direct funding has been provided under the national development plan for the provision of backbone infrastructure and to upgrade local access infrastructure.



In addition, in partnership with local and regional authorities, the Government is continuing to fund the construction of high speed, open access metropolitan area networks, MANs, in towns and cities nationwide. These wholesale networks are enabling private sector operators to offer world class broadband services at competitive costs.



The Department also offered funding assistance for smaller towns and rural communities through the group broadband scheme, GBS. The scheme, which was technology-neutral, subsidised the implementation of 127 projects in rural areas. This range of small to medium sized service providers have supported competition using a range of different technologies. In addition, these service providers have made use of the private and state owned regional backhaul links.


These infrastructure interventions have helped expand competition in the regions by facilitating the introduction of new service providers to areas where none existed a couple of years ago. However, the private sector will still be unable to justify the commercial provision of broadband services in some parts of the country.



The failure of the market to bridge the digital divide in specific rural areas will be addressed through the Department’s national broadband scheme, NBS. The scheme will provide broadband services to areas that are currently unserved and will ensure all reasonable requests for broadband in unserved areas are met. The first phase of the procurement process for the NBS, the pre-qualification questionnaire phase, is complete and four candidates pre-qualified. The four candidates were BT Communications Ireland Limited Consortium, Eircom Limited, Hutchinson 3G Ireland Limited and IFA-Motorola Consortium.


Following the withdrawal of the IFA-Motorola Consortium as a candidate, the remaining three candidates have commenced competitive dialogue with the Department and they are developing their proposed solutions to meet the requirements for the delivery of broadband to the unserved areas of the country. It is anticipated a preferred bidder will be selected and appointed in June 2008, with roll-out to commence as soon as possible thereafter. The broadband product to be provided under the NBS will be broadly equivalent to those typically available on the Irish market with similar prices.



The most appropriate mechanism to achieve this aim will be decided during the competitive dialogue process. The issue of broadband availability is close to resolution and we are turning our attention to the new challenges facing the market, such as improving quality and speeds and further reducing costs of broadband access.



It needs to be ensured Ireland’s consumers have available the most up to date and innovative products and services that are available on-line.


A paper on next generation broadband is being finalised in the Department and will be published shortly for public consultation. yadd yadda

But no mention of Glencullen, so the first senator leps up again. Glencullen is in DUBLIN not in Ballygobackwards .

Senator Maria Corrigan: I thank the Minister of State for his response. Will he convey to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources that Glencullen does not have access to wireless broadband? The local school, St. Patrick’s, and the library would benefit from such access.

Better make that less than 85% population coverage then.

Deputy Pat Carey: I will do so. The Minister is acutely aware of the issues applying to Glencullen and similar remote rural areas. He is confident the proposals outlined in my reply will address these serious deficits.

Sponge Bob

Also note that 85% population coverage coverage is only possible if you include mobile as Carey said , if you leave out this Internationally Non compliant 3g technology....because its not Broadband, the population coverage is more like 80%-82% in Ireland .

thebman

Its a joke, thats what the NBS is. They have gone out of their way to remove as much of the population as possible from the scheme so that they can save money. Just wait for the people that still can't get access to BB after it is rolled out to complain if they bother (they haven't seemed that concerned up to now, lets face it). It does look more and more like the government keeps postponing the NBS as they know they won't deliver with it so its just something they can point to whenever BB issues come up in the media. I'd be surprised if it does go ahead before the next election at this rate.

Not only will the government exclude areas covered by Mobile BB, remember when they asked all operators to include areas they intend to cover over the next couple of years? Expect to see those areas excluded too! That is when eircom announced the final 300?? I think exchanges to be enabled.

Sickening that the government is this incompetent and that the people will take it! Also the speeds announced for the NBS are disgracefully low and out of date. As I recall they meet the minimum requirements for eircoms starter BB package coincidentally. Just how useful do the people here reckon the NBS is going to be and how much will the end cost be for this half hearted attempt at Nationally available BB?

SkepticOne

Although it sounds fairly reasonable when first heard, the NBS is basically an ill-conceived half-baked idea. It will be political suicide for whoever is in power when it is eventually completed if it ever is. That is why it is subject to so many delays.

thebman

I don't know, they'll just blame the telcoms companies for providing them with false informtion when half the country says they still can't get broadband.

Also it might not be completely half baked if it was thought out properly. I mean Three are being considerd with their Mobile BB solution and all one has to do to see how crap three is google three broadband problem (note the thee ad ) and the boards thread pops right up detailing problems occurring for months that are still unresolved.

In the end I think it just a legal way for the government to hand shed loads of cash to eircom to enable the rest of the exchanges in the country and that's about it.

watty

There will be more people on DSL enabled exchanges NOW that can't get broadband than the project will give Broadband to.

Also it's a poisoned chalice for the "winning" supplier as they are not supposed to make profit.

Without profit there is no customer service, no innovation, no upgrades, no repairs, no incentive.