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TODAY A GOVERNMENT put forward its recommendations for how issues around access to broadband and mobile phones will be solved.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten and Arts Minister Heather Humphreys brought a report compiled by a broadband taskforce before Cabinet for consideration.
The report contains 40 actions aimed at accelerating the delivery of telecoms infrastructure, ahead of the rollout of the National Broadband Plan which will bring high speed broadband to all premises throughout the country.
Here are the key actions included in the report:
Some more technical aspects which will improve broadband services include:
An annual forum convened to discuss wider issues impacting the rollout of telecoms infrastructure across Ireland, and a group will monitor the implementation of the report.
Delays
Ireland has frequently scored poorly in comparison to other EU countries when it comes to the percentage of households that have access to broadband.
The National Broadband Plan was first announced in 2012 with very little progress made until last year, when then-minister for communications Alex White said he expected to sign contracts with the winning bidder or bidders by mid-2016.
However, the procurement process is still ongoing and a winning bidder has yet to be appointed.
Minister Denis Naughten said that he’s ”critically aware of the frustrations being felt across Ireland in terms of poor connectivity” and that the Broadband Plan would be delivered in “the shortest time possible”.
Already, mobile operators are completing upgrades of their 3G and 4G networks; there was an €8 million allocation in Budget 2017 for the 700MHz spectrum band; telecoms operators are continuing to invest in the rollout of high speed broadband across Ireland.
Fianna Fáil Communications spokesperson Timmy Dooley criticised the timeframe for the implementation of the report, saying “there is no need to undergo another mapping exercise to see where there are mobile broadband blackspots. The mobile phone operators know exactly where coverage is poor”.
What people in many communities will be asking when they read this report is: when will my house get access to decent, high speed broadband and mobile coverage?
Unfortunately, the answer is the same as it was before this report was published: 2023 at the earliest for fixed high speed broadband in the home.
According to the Department of Communications, 1.4 million households currently have access to high speed broadband.
Our government have had many plans to fix many things in this country but alas they have delivered only austerity and misery.
Populist nonsense as usual Robert
@Paul P O’Sullivan: But true Paul there is a difference btw.
Another report or expert group to keep the gravy train going and deliver sweet frederick adams for the people
@Paul P O’Sullivan: our government are a bunch of usless wasters that should be tried for treason.
The irish government couldn’t organize a piss up in a brewery.shite I forgot they have the dail bar!
@Paul P O’Sullivan: Another faceless commenter who doesn’t know what Populist means.
Unfortunately Denis Naughten has already signed off on state ownership of the broadband network once the roll out is completed so future subscribers will be at the mercy of private corporations with the inevitable steady increase in subscription rates.
It’s pretty obvious that it has been decided by the elites of our society that our country cousins are better of being denied broadband for as long as possible.We wouldn’t want the situation to arrive when they have access to real news as opposed to all that false news being peddled by RTE or the DOB owned media.
@Alex : the State don’t own the network. Mary O’Rourke sold that off a long time ago, and it’s been in private ownership since.
@John Moylan:
The gap funding model would have allowed the state to retain ownership of the network but the government chose the privatisation model.
The cabinet approved the motion last July.
Our government consists of fixers but they can and will fix nothing except their own self interest.
First they will need to set up a broadband tax commission to install a meter on internet use,Anyone found wasting the internet will pay double after a family friendly amount has been agreed on, Then the internet will be put out to tender.
We should get consultants (the expensive ones that know what they are doing) and .. And pensions !! .. Pensions for everyone (with bonuses, bonuses with pensions in them)
Agreed,But in addition they should get a bonus for every pension and a pension for each bonus with an index linked tax free pay oût after one month and Dáil holidays.
Why is so much of this focused on mobile broadband? This will never ever be a suitable means of reliable internet access for businesses and homes. Physical connections needed for speed, reliability and consistency. While I’m at it – there wasn’t ducting installed alongside the motorways when they were being constructed? I’m appalled at this short sightedness. I remember my family doing a new driveway in the 80′s and installing ducting for lighting. It has come in handy in the last 5 years to install electric gates with ease. Crazy stuff.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I live 10 miles from Dublin city centre and I’ve no hope getting a decent mobile signal inside the house. I’ve to stand in my back yard patting my head and rubbing my belly to get a 3G signal, never mind 4g or anything like a broadband connection. It’s a bloody good job I’ve an exceedingly reliable 360mb connection inside the house.
And to think if our wonderful planners had specified cheap as chips (at time of construction) ducting to every house a couple of decades ago we could all be using 1Gbps internet right now. I instead most of us ended up with questionable quality copper. I guess they were too busy specifying what color the window frames should be.
@J D: wired broadband will be a thing of the past in the years to come.
Wireless will be the future.
They’re selling wired speeds in a wireless world.
That’s a common misconception Eamonn. If that were the case we would have no new cables being laid in the ground and we’d all be working away happily on some form of wireless connections. You’ll never beat the reliability, consistancy and speed of cables in the ground.
The ducting could have been installed when the motorways were under construction? Added costs now I’d imagine
Ah will you stop Danny forward planing in Ireland are you off your head………
I am angry in retrospect!
@Pat Lonergan: Can we then make it a rule that all new motorways have good ducting capacity, dammit sorry, that would be forward planning wouldn’t it, my bad, scratch that!
“A new 95km ducting is being built along the M7 / M8 motorway” – is this a wind up? They surely put in a few service ducts when the motorway was being built? I know it was done in sections but it’s beggars belief there was no provisioning for this.
The foreign engineers had this in the proposal but guess what? It was cheaper not to do it all. Only in Ireland ha
Just put Enda up on top or Carrauntoohil with a wire coat hanger ..
Of course the usual suspects will pick up the installation contracts,on completion some will go ‘bust’ again leaving sub contractors, suppliers and workers in the lurch.
I’ll be moving into my house here in Burgas, Bulgaria, in the new year. Renovations are almost complete.
I’m going to be looking at installing a WiFi system in it. Took a look at one companies offer for WiFi. They have 4 systems on offer, ranging in price from 36 leva a mth (18 euro) to 126 leva (63 euro) a mth.
Ordinary cable internet runs from 8 leva (4 euro) a mth for 10mbs to 36 leva (18 euro) a mth for 150mbs. It works out cheaper again for a two year deal.
If Bulgaria can do it, no reason why Ireland can’t.
There’s actually similar available here. 30mbps satellite for around €25 a month. I think the issue for businesses is the crappy upload speeds of around 2mbps. For the average household though stuck out the arse end of nowhere it’s well worth a look. Besides it’s nice to know your not relying on government infrastructure …especially Irish government infrastructure for your information.
@Poole Hyde: I’m 400 kms from the Capitol, in a small village outside of Burgas.
Satellite has usually been slower, more expensive and due to the transfer distance, unsuitable for internet use that needs a consistent quality like Skype, VPN, video conferencing ie not teleworking above email and web browsing.
@Dave Doyle: what’s the average monthly wage in Bulgaria?
Yet another plan. If I had got a € for every plan various governments have produced / published I’d be able to afford to build my own broadband infrastructure at this stage…..
Couldn’t bring myself to read to the bottom of this shite!
Lies
… waivers for companies in respect of development contributions for broadband infrastructure but none for first time buyers, €10,000 dev levy, €5,000 social housing levy, VAT levy (none in NI or UK) …. wait for the populist ( real people’s lives) revolt and then be shocked when the swamp is drained …
Bullshit
With half of Mayo forced to find work on building sites throughout the world you would think Dame Enda would at least insist on companies employed on major government infrastructure projects setting aside, compelled to employ a certain number of apprentices seeing that training projects such as FAS got scrapped.
Apprentices of what, exactly? Once the holes are dug, they’re dug. Once ducts are in, they’re in. Once cables pulled, they’re pulled. There is no lifetime of work in it
Ah here. Fix the homeless situation first
The government has done nothing for broadband, all the investment came from eir and virgin. Its almost like saying we’ll do a little here and a little there and take all the credit. Most useless government in the history of this state.
@Bhiniáimin Ó Beith: the majority from Virgin. They drive broadband speeds and infrastructural development up like a freight train.
If it had been left to Eir we’d still be on 3 Megs.
More of the same shite
UK based Seetec will supply cheap government subsidised labour through Jobspath in a nice cosy relationship between themselves and the installation contractors,any young lad or lassie looking for an apprenticeship will be laughed at and told their best bet is head to the UK if they want an apprenticeship.
There’s a lot more things other than broadband that need fixing in this country.
Another taskforce, looks like nothing more than another excuse to pay themselves and their buddys more money.
Ya right!
Is it me or is Denis Noughten a bit lively with the press releases these last few weeks, on a range of issues. I have seen this before from other ministers, a load of soundbites and interviews and reports at key times during the year but not much else of substance the rest of the year.
I was in Sicily a few months ago in a tiny hamlet near Punta Secca and watched the government sponsored diggers laying fibreoptic cable on the roads with direct links to every house planned. All along the N4 here to Sligo fibreoptics cable was installed, but it belongs to Eircom and apparently can’t be used.
The only way for the problem to be resolved is for government NOT to be involved.
An endless succession of idiotic, bureaucratically-driven “solutions” have ALL failed.
Stand back.
And leave it to the experts.
the government need to limit the internet service providers from developing faster speeds in the city until the whole country has broadband access. Until rural areas have 20mb + speeds, Internet service providers should be restricted.
No one needs 100mb broadband, yet alone Eir now advertising 1gb broadband. Let there be a minimum standard across the country before we more forward
Great. I can have a map to help me choose between the range of providers available to me in my local area. Unfortunately, there are no providers of proper ‘broadband’ here. Still, thanks for the map.
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