Publication
National Broadband Plan
From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
Published on
Last updated on
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:
- 537,596 premises
- 1.1 million people
- Over 54,000 farms
- 44,000 non-farm businesses
- 695 schools
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. Today over 1.78 million or 75% of premises in Ireland can access commercially available high speed broadband services.
The Government of Ireland supports the NBP to ensure that no-one in Ireland is 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, Kelly Group and Actavo. 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.
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, the following Department/NBI Engagement Groups have been established:
- Contract Liaison Board
- Programme Execution Group
- Compliance and Governance Group
- Network Build Group
- Financial Performance Group
- Operational Performance Group
- Communications Working Group
- Broadband Connection Point (BCP) Implementation Group
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:
- a suite of broadband products to cater for both residential and business users
- technical specifications of the minimum broadband service that must be delivered
- detailed wholesale product and price controls for future changes
- a suite of key performance indicators to ensure the service is maintained appropriately
- significant penalties to address under performance
- substantial oversight arrangements to monitor progress, costs and take up of services
- extensive monthly, quarterly and annual reporting requirements by NBI
- major checkpoint reviews at various stages in the project
- linkage of the payments to NBI to the completion and verification of milestones such as premises passed and premises connected
- substantial provisions to reclaim (“clawback”) subsidy from NBI in the event of costs savings achieved or additional revenues generated
- a standalone Board responsible for the operations and day to day management of NBI, with the Board required to report to the Minister regularly
- Ministerial appointee to the NBI Board
- independent audit of NBI accounts
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:
- identify any repair/ make ready activities required to ensure to ensure infrastructure is fit to lay/hang cables
- installation of the electronic equipment to each exchange building
- on-boarding of retail service providers and development of IT systems within NBI to allow operators place orders and schedule connections etc
- laying of the physical fibre along the poles and ducts
- upon receipt of order from customer, activation of the final connection to premises
NBI have mobilised their staff and contractors and are ramping up their capacity to deliver the project, as of mid-June 2020, 30,000 premises have been surveyed throughout Ireland.
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 NBP network will offer users a high speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 150Mbps. By the end of next year, NBI plans to pass in the region of 115,000 premises, with 70,000 - 100,000 passed each year thereafter until rollout is completed.
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. These locations will be connected with high speed broadband in Year One of the NBP State intervention deployment while waiting for the wider deployment to reach their area.
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 will leverage the high speed broadband connection through a range of initiatives, for example, providing free public Wi-Fi. Some will also 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 delivery project is well underway with preliminary technical work advancing at locations throughout Ireland which will facilitate connectivity in the near future. In advance of homes and businesses receiving future-proofed broadband directly to their door, the BCPs will provide vital high speed internet access at locations within the intervention Area.
BCP locations are subject to change and a number of the premises initially identified are in the process of being replaced with alternative locations. The remaining BCPs remain on track for delivery with sites becoming available to communities in the second half of 2020.
700 primary schools will be connected to broadband by the end of 2022 as the rollout of the National Broadband Plan accelerates. These connections will be in place significantly earlier than the original completion date in 2026.
Some 70 schools across the Intervention Area will become Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) by the end of Q1 2021, receiving 150Mbps high-speed connectivity for educational access.
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.
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. It is expected that 200 public access BCP sites and 70 primary school BCPs will be connected by the end of Q1 2021. A full list of the connected BCPs is available from National Broadband Ireland (NBI).
We will work with the Department of Education to prioritise the connection of the remaining schools over the next two years as part of the acceleration of the NBP.
