NBP: National Broadband Plan Announced

HoggyRS wrote: »

Theres alot of work going on the Cork to Dublin motorway just outside Mitchelstown. Ducts being put down, chambers being built and rope being pulled through the ducts. Is this to do with one of the FTTH companies?

Which side of Mitchelstown was it? There's no ducting on the M8 between Mitchelstown and Cashel, but there is from Mitchelstown to Cork.

Jakey Rolling wrote: »

North side, a couple of km of roadworks near Kilbeheny at present, wondered what they were up to

Yeah, I spotted it in two locations on the M8. Purple 110mm ducting.

I know the NRA (or whatever it's called this government) have a ducting product. Meant to be a disaster. Non-contiguous runs, priced too high to be of any commercial use.

Brian O'Donohoe's opinion piece in this newspaper last Sunday questioned the need to roll out high-speed broadband to rural Ireland that was capable of meeting the needs of users for 25 years and beyond.

I feel compelled to respond as a rural TD and as Communications Minister. I want to reassure people in rural Ireland that high-speed broadband will be delivered to every premises in Ireland under the National Broadband Plan which I am driving. The plan will be one of the single biggest investments in rural Ireland for generations.

The reality is there are provincial parts of this country that are significantly behind where they need to be in terms of modern communications infrastructure.

Across the country, from inner cities to remote rural parishes, there are communities that are partly or sometimes wholly excluded from basic criteria of modern convenience and comfort, in terms of communications, energy efficiency and fuel poverty.

It is exactly because of this that a top social, economic and political priority for me is delivering the National Broadband Plan in the shortest time that is humanly possible. This plan will revolutionise businesses and communities across provincial towns in rural Ireland. As a rural TD I know only too well the frustrations of people living in rural Ireland who cannot access online services - 1.8 million people. This is not acceptable and I am determined to deal with this head on.

Over the last five years, the telecoms industry has invested €3.3bn. This is roughly equivalent to Ireland's annual public capital programme.

As a result, 1.3 million homes and businesses in Ireland can now access high-speed broadband of at least 30mbps and 4G data services are available to more than 90pc of the population.

The broadband plan will address this deficit. It may even reverse the urban-rural digital divide.

So what is the plan? It will deliver a high-speed broadband network to more than 750,000 premises, covering 100,000km of road network and 96pc of the land area of Ireland.

The current procurement process to build this network stipulates a minimum speed of 30mbps to all premises and an expansion path for a solution that will last for 25 years.

When I look at the scale of this plan, I associate it with rural electrification. It is critical that we make the right intervention. We aim to do this once and do it right.

Every home and business in Ireland will have access to high-speed broadband and be future proofed for advances in technology for decades to come.

Bidders in the procurement process have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution for rural Ireland. This is their choice and I welcome this news. It is good news for rural Ireland. So I was surprised to read in Brian O'Donohoe's article that some believe fibre-to-the-home may not be the optimal solution.

It may be helpful to refer to the rhetoric around the Shannon Scheme in the 1920s. In Michael Shiel's story of rural electrification The Quiet Revolution: The Electrification of Rural Ireland, he notes that some media at the time "while not actually hostile expressed doubts about the size and timing of the venture". He quotes one newspaper as saying: "The present needs of Southern Ireland cannot be more than about 40 million units per annum… whereas the scheme provides for 140 million units. The Irish people…with such an excess of power…may all be electrocuted in their beds." Shiel notes that the figure of 150 million units was reached within 10 years of the signing of the contract for the Shannon Scheme and by 1970 "annual consumption of electricity from rural consumers alone exceeded 1,000 million units".

The world of telecoms is strikingly similar. Data usage on mobile networks has increased by 500pc in the last five years and fixed-line internet traffic is set to double every two years.

Commercial operators worldwide will make their investments based on the financial returns they can achieve and the technologies they choose reflect this reality. While this has driven very significant investment in parts of Ireland, that investment has not materialised in several other areas.

For Government, the returns are not all about short to medium-term financial profit. They are about improving and supporting communities, businesses, our economy and people. Left to the market alone, parts of rural Ireland would never get high-speed broadband. The National Broadband Plan will address the gap between what commercial operators will provide and what we as a society aspire to and demand.

Last week's article suggested difficulties with planning for a predominantly fibre-to-the-home network. All technologies bring planning and roll-out challenges, including both fixed line and wireless.

In Ireland we are fortunate to have two national networks that are capable of delivering fixed-line services to homes and businesses in every corner of the country. In rural Ireland, much of this can be achieved through the use of existing overhead poles. Most countries have one national fixed-line telecoms operator, but Ireland also has the ability to use its electricity infrastructure, thanks to legislation introduced by the Oireachtas in 2014.

Through the work of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce, which I established with Minister Heather Humphreys almost as soon as I took office, we are working with local authorities to improve planning. The appointment of a broadband officer as a single point of contact for telecoms operators in each local authority will be key to overcoming obstacles quickly.

I am determined to deliver as Communications Minister a National Broadband Plan that will provide people in rural and urban Ireland with the quality connectivity they deserve, regardless of where they live. No premises will be left behind and the service will endure for generations to come.

Denis Naughten is the Independent TD for Roscommon-Galway and Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment

Again....thanks KOR101

It companies like Imagine causing delay to NBP with legal actions looking for ways to destroy NBP from ever happening to save there monopoly on rural Ireland.I hope we know the winning bidder(s) in 2017 with work starting in late 2017/early 2018.

KOR101 wrote: »

Rob -Where's the evidence of that? There was some talk here before about having technical systems in place to allow the WISPS to connect to the NBP fibre, but I haven't read any concrete about legal threats from them.

The EU is quite clear about the 30mbit target, and just look at the Imagine thread now. There's no way they could make a case. Eir with it's blue line is another matter, but we are largely in the dark about what the precise legal issue are.

There no evidence but it wouldn't surprise me if they try I'm just hoping there no more delays.

murphaph wrote: »

I didn't now Virgin was interested in the NBP. That's good to have 3 large bidders interested, from a taxpayer's perspective hopefully that means we will get the best price possible.

I think that was a error it should had said Enet.I couldn't see virgin media being interest in rural Ireland.

Off topic, but related......

Communications Minister Denis Naughten said that he plans to make Ireland the first European country to base mobile operator licenses on geographical coverage rather than population coverage.

The move means that Vodafone, Three and Meteor will be required to cover more than cities or large towns to be granted new licenses, starting with the upcoming 5G mobile license auction in 2019.

At present, Irish mobile operators' licenses only require them to cover between 70pc and 85pc of the country by population, meaning there is no obligation to extend 3G or 4G services into relatively unpopulated areas of the country or rural roads."We hope to be the first country in Europe to roll out 5G licenses on a geographical basis rather than a population basis," said Mr Naughten. "Based on our dispersed population, we need to do it this way."

He said that 5G licence auctions are expected in Ireland in "late 2019 or early 2020" and that the relevant wireless spectrum for 5G is currently being freed up.

"There are lots of reasons for geographic coverage instead of population coverage. If you take farmers, they need access to services on their phone when out and about. Farming and rural services are changing quickly and we need ubiquitous coverage for that."

"We all talk about driverless cars coming down the line, but you can't have driverless cars without ubiquitous 5G," he said.

However, the new geographic coverage requirements won't be applied to existing licences. Mr Naughten said that the government is launching new initiatives to increase mobile penetration around the country. He said that the use of equipment called 'mobile repeaters', aimed at boosting mobile signals in individual homes, will be allowed from next year.

He also said that some planning and mast-building hurdles for operators are to be minimised, such as development levies collected from mobile operators by local councils. Operators will get also more access to state property for infrastructure. And mobile operators will now report to a joint government task force headed by Minister Naughten and Arts Minister Heather Humphries.

Finally, a national mobile signal map is to be published by Comreg with input from the mobile operators' own data.

http://m.independent.ie/business/technology/news/mobile-phone-operators-required-to-cover-more-of-rural-ireland-under-new-licensing-conditions-35308868.html

ED E wrote: »

Still scratching my head why three havent provisioned VOLTE.

Maybe because coverage is not quite there yet, and they have additional complications with respect to being able to handover calls from and tongue three and legacy o2 network.