National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)

My Department is currently engaging with NBI to explore the feasibility of accelerating aspects of the NBP roll-out and to bring premises which are scheduled for connection in years 6 and 7 of the current plan forward to an earlier date. These discussions are ongoing and a preliminary position will be arrived at by the end of the summer. It is premature at this point to speculate on what premises may benefit from this potential change, other than to say that those premises currently scheduled for the latter end of the roll-out are the focus of the analysis.

Like so many other projects the national broadband plan has been delayed slightly by the Covid-19 pandemic due to the difficulty of completing certain work but it has not been delayed as much as other projects. A lot of the work of recent months, such as surveying poles to see which ones need to be improved or upgraded, could continue. By the end of this year we expect to be pretty much on target in terms of delivery timelines.

I note another factor that may help accelerate progress. We started this project in a world where it was very hard to get construction workers. There were so many different demands and construction activities taking place. Post Covid-19 it may be a possible to access workers and contractors more quickly than was the case six months ago when the economy was at full tilt.

Moreover, hopefully there is a benefit for everyone in this. Acceleration might be helped by increased confidence that the uptake of these services will be on the higher end of our expectations, because we are seeing the benefits of remote working and the use of high-speed broadband in a way we would not have expected six months ago. I hope that might help us to accelerate the process to the benefit of all concerned.

https://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2020-07-15a.71&s=national+broadband+plan#g79

Like so many other projects the national broadband plan has been delayed slightly by the Covid-19 pandemic

And in no way delayed and fought against by him personally and the Taoiseach's party of course!

I honestly think a cure for cancer would be given the same treatment in Ireland. Nothing good can be done under 'them', it has to be under 'us'.

We had the NBI lads at our door the day before yesterday in Tipperary. They were doing a straightforward "Duct or pole?" survey for each house. They couldn't open the duct cover on the roadside because it was locked which was a bit surprising. You'd assume it would speed things up greatly if they could check things instead of hoping the house owner knew and expecting them to be home during the day. Thankfully (kind of), covid is guaranteeing that they have more people answering their house calls during business hours. Still pinching myself that this whole thing is happening, 7 years after moving down from Dublin.

SBP reporting David McCourt claim that NBP rollout could be reduced to four years.

https://www.businesspost.ie/telecoms/mccourt-claims-national-broadband-plan-could-be-rolled-out-in-four-years-dbabacf2?utm_campaign=article&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=web

Maybe someone who has an SBP account could fill in the details, if there are any.

clohamon wrote: »

SBP reporting David McCourt claim that NBP rollout could be reduced to four years.

https://www.businesspost.ie/telecoms/mccourt-claims-national-broadband-plan-could-be-rolled-out-in-four-years-dbabacf2?utm_campaign=article&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=web

Maybe someone who has an SBP account could fill in the details, if there are any.

The National Broadband Plan could be rolled out in just over four years, rather than seven as originally planned, David McCourt has claimed.

The US businessman controls National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company which was awarded the controversial multibillion-euro state contract to provide high-speed broadband to more than 540,000 homes within seven years.

The Business Post revealed earlier this month that NBI had told operators that it believed it could “significantly” speed up the rollout of the broadband network.

In a new interview with Capacity, a telecoms magazine, McCourt has now said his company was “working on a plan to speed up the build and build it in 60 per cent of the time we first planned”.

This would suggest a build time of a little over four years, rather than the seven-year timeframe that NBI has said it is working to.

Asked how NBI could reduce the build time by 40 per cent and whether additional staff would be required to do so, a spokeswoman for the company said: “NBI remain committed to rolling out the National Broadband Plan ahead of time, and our regular discussions with the Department of Communications include exploring how that might be expedited.”

It is unclear how an expedited rollout would affect the taxpayer-funded subsidy that the state would be required to provide to NBI for completing the project three years ahead of schedule. The NBI spokeswoman declined to comment on the potential cost implications for the state.

Richard Bruton, the former communications minister, said in May that he believed NBI could reduce the National Broadband Plan rollout period from seven years to five.

Bruton told the Dáil that he had asked his officials “to investigate the feasibility of accelerating the rollout of the National Broadband Plan so that those [premises] now in years six and seven can be brought forward”.

There are around 192,000 premises which are not due to be connected to high-speed broadband until the final two years of the plan.

Joe Lavin, the chief commercial officer at NBI, recently told operators the company was on track to pass a minimum of 115,000 premises with the network by the end of 2021.

Once the network had been completed in the initial deployment areas, NBI would review the build of the network to find efficiencies and identify opportunities to “go faster”.

“That's probably not going to have a massive impact on our 2021 number but it will have a significant impact on 2022/23/24,” he said.

KOR101 wrote: »

Desperate lockdown journalism.......

From a June 30th article.

How long will it all take? “We’re working on a plan to speed up the build, and build it in 60% of the time we first planned.”

https://www.capacitymedia.com/articles/3825832/when-irish-fibres-smiling

And, I love this too......

In Ireland, “it’s all been done without any political nonsense”, he smiles on a video call from California.

The only takeaway that was new to me but probably not ask that surprising was:

"NBI’s customers will be the retail telecoms companies across the Republic of Ireland — mainly Comcast’s Sky, Liberty Global’s Virgin Media and UK-based Vodafone. What about Eir, the incumbent? Later, a representative of NBI updates me: “I can confirm NBI is engaged with Eir and it is anticipated that they will join … the NBI network."

Pique wrote: »

Have any of you asked your WISP if they will be providers on the NBI infrastructure? I asked mine and they said they hadn't made a decision on it yet. They were part of the consortium objecting to the NBP, fwiw.

Cant see why they wont once its here. The only reason they all objected is that they will loose the fixed wireless sign ups that they currently have.

Once FTTH is here instead of only having the option of fixed wireless for 55 euro a month with lightnet, I will have multiple options.

It's actually a joke they objected In the first place.

joe123 wrote: »

The only reason they all objected is that they will lose the fixed wireless sign ups that they currently have their monopoly.

FTFY

Westnet: Paul wrote: »

We've been engaging with NBI from an early stage, and we're planning to offer services.

Good to hear. I'm not a customer btw.

I hope all regional WISPs do the same. Personally I would prefer to support a regional NBI-based ISP over the multinationals like Virgin/Vodafone/Sky and keep some employment in the area I live.

Yes, even if it costs extra per month. We can't bang on about rural Ireland dying if we don't support local suppliers, be that broadband or whatever.

St. Westy wrote: »

no need for the smart answer goodman :cool: i was asking for your opinion, plenty of infrastructure out here considering eir, virgin and vodafone is 300 metres from me, there is hubs where all the eir rollout covered, so infrastructure isnt an issue in my opinion

:pac:

St. Westy wrote: »

no need for the smart answer goodman :cool: i was asking for your opinion, plenty of infrastructure out here considering eir, virgin and vodafone is 300 metres from me, there is hubs where all the eir rollout covered, so infrastructure isnt an issue in my opinion

On the wind up or .. ??? :eek:

Sorry haven't followed much in the last few months but are those not in an intervention area but getting less than 30mb still in limbo?

joe123 wrote: »

Friend of mine recently had this. He just followed the instructions on the nbi website where you get confirmation from providers he couldnt get more than XMb. He then emailed the government address called out on the nbi website. They got back to him to confirm they would take it from there and was it ok to use his data or something.

Fyi he was marked as being able to get FTTH but couldnt get more than 7Mb.

Thanks, I've sent them an email.

corsav6 wrote: »

Getting closer to Castlebar so, I was hoping I'd see them a few miles in the other direction.
On 6mb fixed wireless now and while it's solid it's just a bit too slow for a family.

It looked to me that they where heading away from castlebar going out the Newport road could be wrong though

This was on there Facebook page
Surveying has started in Co Mayo in the following townlands of Shanvoley, Derryhick, Kilhale, Tawnylaheen, Turlough, Ballyvary, Keeloges, Castlebar Town, Rinnaseer, Bellaburke, Killawullaun Mountain, Carn, Carnacon, Ballyglass, Belcarra, Balla, Manulla, and Ringarraun. With over 47,000 surveys completed we are committed to building, delivering and operating a superb broadband infrastructure that will benefit over 1.1m people in rural Ireland.
#NBI #NationalBroadbandPlan #BuildingALimitlessIreland
Mayo.ie

I didn't see them do it myself but my neighbour's son spotted them tagging a few poles in my road. I took a look and sure enough, there are 3 poles, all ivy covered and one with a very slight lean, that have been tagged with a red 'D' on a white background. Presumably they are for replacement?

Have they decided on what counties will be rolled out/connected first and in what order they will be done? Or even when the first rollouts/connections will start taking place?

BandMember wrote: »

Have they decided on what counties will be rolled out/connected first and in what order they will be done? Or even when the first rollouts/connections will start taking place?

I've seen surveying announcements about townlands from the counties below. There's been some hints that the connection schedule will follow the same order as the surveys. The first announcement seems to date from 13th August of last year in Kerry and there seemed to be a commitment to connection of homes by Autumn 2020, but there doesn't seem to have been any mention of those areas since, except for Ballyhar

carlow
cavan
cork
galway
kerry
kildare
kilkenny
laois
limerick
longford
louth
mayo
monaghan
roscommon
sligo
tipperary
waterford
westmeath
wexford

Update:

And from the Dáil on Wednesday there is an indication that the longterm schedule is already known down to premises level.

my Department continues to engage with NBI to explore the feasibility of accelerating aspects of this rollout to establish the possibility of bringing forward premises which are currently scheduled in years 6 and 7 of the current plan to an earlier date.