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National Broadband Plan
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The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the government’s initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland. This will be delivered through investment by commercial enterprises coupled with intervention by the State in those parts of the country where private companies have no plans to invest.
The State Intervention area includes:
The NBP is a key aspect of government strategy across a number of key areas including climate, agriculture, education, transport, tourism, sustainable growth, jobs and health.
A key principle of the NBP is to support and stimulate commercial investment. Since the publication of the NBP in 2012, the commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €2.75 billion. This was spent primarily on upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of high speed broadband and mobile telecommunications services. Significant additional investment is expected over the coming years. Of the 2.4 million premises in Ireland, 77% can access commercially available high speed broadband services of more than 30 Mbps.
The Government of Ireland supports the NBP to ensure that no premises in Ireland are left behind. It is a critical infrastructural project which will ensure that every citizen and business, no matter where they are based, can progress together.
To support connected communities, approximately 300 Broadband Connections Points (BCPs) have been identified to be connected to high speed broadband this year, to assist communities quickly getting free public access to high speed broadband in advance of the main NBP deployment.
Covid-19 has further highlighted the importance of broadband in keeping people connected to each other, their work, education resources, business needs, and entertainment services. The NBP will contribute significantly to removing the existing digital divide between urban and rural communities in Ireland.
To deliver the National Broadband Plan (NBP), the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) went through a rigorous procurement process to choose a company to build, operate and maintain a high speed broadband network. This was to ensure service to all premises in the State where commercial operators do not and have no plans to provide this service.
The successful tender, led by Granahan McCourt, set out detailed plans on how it would build, operate, and maintain the network. Following a rigorous assessment, the Department was satisfied that the proposal met all the required criteria and could deliver on NBP objectives. On 19 November 2019 the government signed the contract for the National Broadband Plan.
Further information regarding the NBP procurement process can be accessed here.
Following the award of the contract, Granahan McCourt incorporated a new Irish registered company, National Broadband Ireland (NBI), to build, operate and maintain the network. They are now designing and preparing to build and operate Ireland’s new high-speed fibre broadband network in the intervention area. Their partners include KN Group, Actavo, TLI and Secto. A fifth Build Sub-Contractor, Gaeltec, has recently been added to the panel. Nokia is providing all the active equipment for the project and 4Site is NBI’s network design partner.
For the most up to date information on the deployment of high-speed fibre within the intervention area visit www.nbi.ie.
The European Commission approved the National Broadband Plan in the context of EU State Aid rules. The Commission issued the decision on 15 November 2019. The Commission has published a non-confidential version of its detailed decision under case number SA.54472. The full decision is also available to view in State Aid SA.54472 (2019/N) – Ireland National Broadband Plan.
In line with the State Aid transparency rules, as of 1 July 2016, Member States are required to notify on a public website beneficiaries of all individual aid awards above €500,000. The Transparency Aid Award document was updated on the EU Transparency Award Module on 9 July 2020 with reference number TM-10196357. It contains the identity of the granting authority, the identity of the individual beneficiaries, the form and amount of aid granted to each beneficiary, the date of granting, the type of undertaking, the region in which the beneficiary is located and the principal economic sector in which the beneficiary has its activities.
In line with State Aid Transparency Rules, the Evaluation Plan, interim Evaluation Reports and yearly State Aid updates will be published.
The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) manages contract governance as the contracting authority. The Department has a core existing team supported by specialist external services to effectively manage the NBP Contract. These include technical, commercial advisory, business process and legal services.
A robust governance structure has been established within the Department to monitor contract compliance across technical, governance, compliance, financial, commercial, and project implementation work streams and includes a NBP Senior Management Team. In addition, Department/NBI Engagement Groups have been established to oversee various aspects of the Programme.
The activities of these groups span across the entire programme and include engagement and discussion on issues relating to Deployment, Operations, Financial, Communications, Compliance and Governance. Formal meetings are supplemented with informal engagement between counterparts on an ongoing basis.
To protect the State investment and ensure that the NBP milestones and deliverables are met, the contract has been designed to include extensive protections, quality checks and reporting and monitoring obligations.
The comprehensive set of protections and legally binding obligations set out in the contract include:
NBI is required to provide regular, detailed reports across a range of areas. DECC will publish regular updates on progress made in delivering the NBP on this website.
The High Speed Broadband Map shows the areas in the State which are included in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) as well as areas targeted by commercial operators. The Map is colour coded and searchable by address and Eircode.
The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the largest infrastructural project in rural Ireland since rural electrification, spanning 96% of Ireland’s land mass. It will bring high speed broadband to 23% of Ireland’s population, (69% of national total of farms) over a seven year period. It is anticipated that the network will involve a total of 140,000km of fibre cable and over 1.5 million poles from networks throughout the country with over 15,000 kilometres of underground duct networks for fibre cable.
Where possible, overhead lines and existing poles will be used to lay/hang the fibre cables. This is a sustainable approach which saves time and money as only 12% of the project will be new build.
Fibre is a way of conveying data in the form of voice, video, music, and all forms of data from one place to another. While copper was previously used in building communication networks, optical fibre cables are now the preferred choice. They are made up of bundles of very fine silica glass strands that are coated in protecting materials to make them strong and suitable for placing in underground ducts or on poles.
New networks, like the NBP are based on optical fibres as it future proofs the network. The capability for optical fibre cable to carry vast amounts of data over long distances is what makes it so effective.
The first step in deploying fibre is a survey to establish the state of existing poles and ducts and review if any repairs are needed. This involves teams walking the fibre route and physically inspecting each pole and duct as well as gathering detailed information on the specific local conditions. This information is then fed back to the design teams so that detailed designs can be completed for each area.
After surveys and development of detailed design are completed there are a number of stages required within each deployment area to roll out the new high speed broadband network including:
NBI have mobilised their staff and contractors and are ramping up their capacity to deliver the project, further information on progress to date is available on their website. The NBP network offers users a high speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 500Mbps.
We have worked with NBI to agree an Updated Interim Remedial Plan (UIRP) which recalibrates the targets for 2022 to take account of the knock on effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and other delays to the Programme. The revised target is 102,000 premises passed by the end of January 2023 (cumulative) against an original contracted target of just over 200,000. The focus is to continue to build momentum in the build program, catching up on the delays experienced due to Covid-19 and planning for acceleration. NBI is planning to have over 200,000 premises with build commenced at the end of 2022.
In 2012, 30% of Irish premises had access to high speed broadband. Today, this is 77% (over 1.8 million of all premises) and forecast to be 95% by 2025 through delivery of the National Broadband Plan.
The government wants to roll out high speed broadband as quickly as possible and is in the process of ensuring early connection to high speed broadband in key locations in rural communities. The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) is working with the Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) to deliver high speed broadband to specified BCPs across the country. The majority of these locations, in areas of community importance, will be connected with high speed broadband under the NBP State intervention deployment, in advance of wider deployment reaching these areas.
To support remote working and connected communities, approximately 300 BCPs throughout the country were identified by Local Authorities to be connected to high speed broadband. The BCPs in identified public places are leveraging the high speed broadband connection through a range of initiatives, for example, providing free public Wi-Fi. Some have hot-desks, and some will be digital hub business centres where digital training, business information events and other SME supports are organised.
The BCP initiative is a collaborative effort involving the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the Department of Rural and Community Development, the Department of Education, Local Authorities and the owners and managers of the BCP sites.
There are two types of BCPs, community facilities for public access and primary schools for educational access. A full list of the connected BCPs is available from National Broadband Ireland (NBI).
In advance of homes and businesses receiving future-proofed broadband directly to their door, the BCPs provide vital high speed internet access at locations within the intervention Area.
The high speed broadband service will be switched on in these locations through service provider contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development for publicly accessible sites, and the Department of Education for school BCPs.
We continue to work with the Department of Education to prioritise schools with no high speed broadband, within the Intervention Area. Further details of schools in scope are available on the NBI website.
School BCPs delivered under the National Broadband Plan (NBP) will ensure that primary school pupils in rural Ireland will be able to participate fully in the digital revolution that is taking place. A BCP at a school location will provide connectivity for pupils and teachers and will underpin the Department of Education’s Digital Learning Framework for Schools.
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