Significant progress on the National Broadband Plan

• The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is delivering on the government’s commitment to ensure every citizen has access to the internet via high-speed broadband. The company delivering on this commitment in the Intervention Area on behalf of the State, National Broadband Ireland (NBI), has made significant progress in 2020

The NBI rollout programme is a key enabler of government strategy across a number of policy areas. Covering 96% of Ireland’s land mass, the Intervention Area now includes over 544,000 premises including newly built premises in the Intervention Area since the contract was awarded. It will bring high-speed broadband with a minimum download speed of 500Mbps to around 23% of Ireland’s population, including 69% of farms, through approximately 140,000km of fibre cable, 1.5 million poles, and over 15,000 kilometres of underground duct networks.

Fibre to the Home

All counties will see premises passed in the first two years and over 90% of premises in the State will have access to high-speed broadband within the next four years.

The NBI rollout programme has already created significant employment opportunities, providing direct and indirect employment to some 800 people to date, with NBI directly employing some 160 NBI staff. A significant number of people are also employed on design activities through design subcontractors enet and eir, who are providing critical infrastructure and services.

NBI subcontractors are surveying fibre routes to assess whether existing poles can be used, assessing underground ducting and the extent of tree trimming required to avoid disturbance of the fibre cables as they are placed on overhead poles. They have made significant progress and as of 23 November, over 136,000 premises across 26 counties have been surveyed. This is ahead of the full year survey target of 120,000 that had been projected by the company.

The Fibre to the Home network deployment work has commenced across the following areas:

• Co Cork - Carrigaline, Fountainstown, Ballinhassig, Monkstown, and Upper Rochestown
• Co Galway - Oranmore, Clarinbridge, Claregalway, Furbo and Barna. Ballinasloe - areas around Ballinasloe such as Kiltomer, Oatfield, Annagh, Kilconnell, and Ahascragh
• Co Cavan - Ballinagh, Corlurgan, Araghan, Poles, and Caughoo
• Co. Limerick - townlands outside Limerick City including Mungret, Patrickswell, Crecora, Castleconnell and Caherconlish

Almost 8,000 premises are targeted to be passed with fibre and connectable to a high speed broadband service by the end of year one of the NBP Contract (end January 2021). December 2020 and January 2021 will see a pilot test and trial phase for connections in Carrigaline, Co Cork. Internet service providers will be able to provide this service directly to customers early in 2021.

The Programme for Government specifically commits to seek to accelerate the roll out of the network by NBI. NBI has established a dedicated team to investigate opportunities for improving the deployment schedule from its current contracted target schedule.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of reliable broadband to ensure that citizens across the country can avail of remote working, education and other essential online services. Recognising this, the Programme for Government sees the NBP as a key enabler of remote working and remote service delivery.

While substantial progress has been made to date, the COVID 19 pandemic has had an impact on the delivery of the fibre network. The full extent of this impact continues to be assessed and NBI is continually putting in place measures to mitigate the impact in as far as possible, including increasing the number of NBI’s survey and design contractors. In addition, engagement has taken place with Openeir to see if it can increase the volume of works carried out on its network, to make the existing pole and duct infrastructure ready for fibre deployment.

Broadband Connection Points: Short-term Solutions for Rural Connectivity

Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) will provide connectivity and help communities to quickly access free public high-speed broadband in advance of the main deployment under the National Broadband Plan. The planned BCP locations were identified by local authorities and include schools, library hubs, and local sports facilities.

The BCP delivery project is now well underway, and connectivity is being provided to each of the sites by NBI. NBI has installed equipment at 201 locations to facilitate BCPs for public access wi-fi. Vodafone is enabling these buildings with the necessary indoor and outdoor wi-fi under their contract with the Department of Rural and Community Development. As of mid-November, 59 BCPs have been connected by Vodafone.

As part of this programme, 74 primary school connection points will be provided. NBI has installed equipment in 52 school sites as of mid-November 2020, with 22 now connected through a service provider contract with the Department of Education and Skills. The remaining school sites will be enabled with wi-fi connections over the coming months. This is part of a multi-year program to prioritise the connectivity to all schools and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is working with the Department of Education and Skills to prioritise the remaining schools to be connected over the term of the NBI deployment.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is leading on a Remote Working Strategy and the NBP is a key enabler for developments in the new working environment that is emerging.

ENDS