National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

The rollout of the state’s multibillion-euro rural internet scheme is to be slashed from seven years to five after the government formally requested that National Broadband Ireland (NBI) accelerate the process.

The Business Post has learned that the Department of Communications (DECC) issued an official change request in late June, setting in motion the process by which the rollout of the national broadband plan to 540,000 homes and businesses can be accelerated.

The department’s decision to pursue a faster rollout schedule comes amid significant early delays to the project. Those delays will result in tens of thousands fewer people gaining access to the network this year than had been anticipated.

The plan is lagging well behind its initial target of making the network available to 115,000 premises by the end of the year. Instead, it will now aim to reach just 60,000 by the close of 2021.

As of mid-June, just 632 of the 540,000 homes and businesses were connected to the network.

A spokesman for NBI confirmed that a request had been received from DECC to “formalise the acceleration of the rollout of the network”.

“NBI is in ongoing dialogue with the department on this matter and is not in a position to comment on the process, timing or content of contractual matters still to be finalised,” he said.

A DECC spokesman said any changes required detailed technical, commercial and financial analysis. He said it was expected a faster rollout could be delivered within the maximum €2.7 billion state subsidy the government had committed to.

“A dedicated team in NBI is working on the acceleration plan for the rollout to potentially shorten the current contracted schedule of seven years,” he said.

“As part of this work, NBI is engaging with current build partners (Eir and Enet) and all contractors to reschedule build activities and to review potential additional build partners/contractors to speed up the build process.”

A redacted copy of the letter sent by Fergal Mulligan, the NBP programme director, to NBI shows he said the purpose of sending the request was to “seek to put proposals from NBI to accelerate the contracted deployment on a contractual footing as soon as possible and to inform stakeholders of the revised timelines”.

In the correspondence, released under Freedom of Information legislation, Mulligan referenced a review of progress under the contract’s milestones and said the minister would determine whether it was appropriate to pursue the accelerated schedule based on these discussions.

NBI would also be required to demonstrate “clear actions” that would facilitate the acceleration of the project, he added, while a new governance structure would also be established.

Separately, new figures seen by the Business Post show that NBI will need to significantly ramp up the rollout for the remainder of 2021 to reach even the reduced targets of passing 60,000 premises it has set itself.

Projections shared with broadband providers at the end of June showed the number of premises passed rose from 1,200 in the first quarter of the year, to 5,900 over the past three months.

Between July and the end of September, NBI is hoping to pass 14,300 homes and businesses before accelerating significantly in the final three months to pass 42,400 premises in the last quarter, 35 times the number achieved between January and March.

Based on NBI’s projections, which it noted were subject to change, the company expects to make the network available to 63,800 premises by the turn of the year with a further 12,000 available for pre-order.

An NBI spokesman said: “It’s important to note that the figures cited are incremental and not cumulative. We have previously indicated that 50,000 to 60,000 premises will be passed by the end of our contract year and that remains the projection.”

NBI’s contractors were permitted to continue working during the pandemic but the company has pointed to difficulties and delays it caused as a reason for its slow progress to date.