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YESTERDAY, EIR ANNOUNCED that they were withdrawing their bid for the Rural Broadband Plan, which has sparked claims that this would both speed up and slow down the rollout of high-speed internet connections across Ireland.
Eir has already rolled out fibre broadband – which is a higher quality, higher speed broadband, to 70% of homes across Ireland – with about 540,000 homes and businesses still remaining to be connected.
The National Broadband Plan aims to give 750,000 premises nationwide a minimum download speed of 30Mbps. This also covers Irish businesses that currently have no access to broadband from commercial operators.
The government had placed a tender out for the remainder of the process, and two bidders were in the mix – Eir and Enet.
Eir, having proceeded with its own rural broadband rollout which took 300,000 premises off the list for the State-subsided National Broadband Plan (NBP), was thought to have been the most likely winner of the tender.
But yesterday, they said they were withdrawing from the tendering process due to a number of factors. Eir CEO Richard Moat told Morning Ireland today:
We took this decision after a long process, it’s being going on for three years, and the contract that the process is based upon has been increasingly onerous… The overall investment environment was not conducive and we couldn’t make a business case stack up. So regrettably, we had to pull out.
Moat denied that the company’s withdrawal for the latter part of the broadband rollout was connected in any way to French billionaire Xavier Niel buying a majority stake in the company in December last year.
Eir are still in the process of rolling out fibre broadband to 300,000 homes in Ireland and are currently “half way through that”. Moat added that the rest would be connected by the end of the year, all going to plan.
He addressed concerns reported by some that the homes that have already been connected don’t have a consistent connection and that multiple users can’t use the internet at the same time in some quarters.
We’ve got 600 customers covered with an offering of 600Mbps, we’ve spent about €40 million in Galway alone. I understand frustration but we are still rolling out fibre to those areas right now.
In a statement yesterday, the former State-owned telecoms company said it had made its decision:
based upon the significant commercial issues and complexity within the tender process, together with growing uncertainty on a range of regulatory and pricing issues that reside outside of the NBP process.
The company’s board has decided that the risks are too great for its continued participation in the NBP. Therefore, Eir has taken the difficult decision to withdraw from the tender process.
“We went into this tender with intention of winning all of it or as much of it as we could,” Moat said this morning.
In a statement yesterday, Minister for Communications Denis Naughten said that Eir had decided to exit the National Broadband Plan because of “commercial, regulatory and governance issues”.
The company invested significant time and resources to the process and their withdrawal from the process at this late stage is regrettable.
So what happens now?
Enet is now the sole bidder for the tender – yesterday it reaffirmed that it was committed to the project.
“We recognise that this procurement is long and complicated, but we look forward to our continued engagement with the department on the remainder of the process,” Enet chair David C McCourt said.
If they do win the contract, there will be a slight overlap between them and Eir as they take over the reins of the broadband rollout plan.
In one example put to Moat, it was said that in cases where Enet needs to use Eir poles to continue the rollout of broadband, the prices of letting those out are already decided by the regulator, so there would be no delays caused by pricing disputes.
Moat said that they haven’t spoken to Enet yet about what they would charge them to use other infrastructure already put in place by Eir – this is because up until yesterday they were both bidders for the process, and so weren’t permitted to speak with one another until the process had concluded.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told reporters this evening that he is not sure of the implications of Eir’s withdrawal, but said the government is keen to conclude a contract.
“Those 500,000 rural homes and premises are really important, as important as rural electrification back in the 30s and 40s and we are keen to concluding this contract and start laying fibre as soon as we can,” Varadkar said.
- with reporting from Fora.ie
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If brexit does happen and Ireland is suppose to be in a good position for companies to relocate why in the hell would they come to Ireland.where rural counties are still in the stone age with broadband and Dublin is completely over heating with property.nearly 50% of Ireland’s gdp comes from Dublin.its totally unsustainable.time to give the other four cities if Ireland a decent chance
@dick dastardly: Go away you!!! We’ll have none of this common sense being spoke around here
@dick dastardly: a lot of that is down to the cities themselves, look at the murder that was caused because cork’s city boundary was being extended. Look at the uproar for a rail link to be built between Limerick and Galway. They built it (when Dublin was crying out for infrastructure improvements) and it’s been loss making from day one and facing closure already. Millions put into galway airport for example and it was left to rot.
@Dick thats how you Plan…Irish style
@Darren Bates: I just heard Coveney say that there is eighty people involved in the negotiations regarding Broadband. Now, how can that amount of people take that many years to come up with absolutely nothing at the end of the line, pun intended.
@dick dastardly: Companies that consider a move to Ireland would not be overly interested in broadband in rural Ireland. Only cities matter.
They cherry picked all the low hanging fruit and then walked away.
That’s what happens when you let Fianna Fáil under Mary O’Rourke sell off your backbone telecommunications network with no understanding of the long term implications of such a move. Utter madness.
Do not sell state owned public networks. EVER.
@Clancy: Deal with it, it is called capitalism.
@cortisola: It’s called stupid.
@Clancy: But Mary O Rourke is soo sweet and nice and lovely………..always an indicator of a dangerous c^^t.
@Clancy: Nothing to do with this issue. This is about fibre broadband with a minimum 30mb download speed. Impossible to achieve over the copper wire network that was sold way back.
@cortisola: It’s called greed, simple as.
@Tommy Roche: how do you think eir are delivering b,band in rural ireland, fibre being rolled out using existing infrastructure, if you look closely you will see the fibre cable 30 cm above the copper, that is common practice outside urban areas, the network is most important, and should have been retained. If ENET want access to eir’s privately owned network the Irish tax payer is going to pay through the nose for it, from eir’s point of view why would you let a competitor use your network for less than commercial rates?
The obvious link is that eir wanted the 300k easier access users and that once they got that the business case for any of the bidders was reduced from 800k users to 500k users. Eir should not of been allowed to cherrypick and derail the whole process in doing so.
The fix is to reintroduce the 300k back into the rural broadband scheme and put it in direct competition with eir’s 300k so as to make it viable for other bidders and penalise eir in doing so. This might change their mind or possibly reintroduce Siro to the bidding.
@Ken Smyth: high speed broadband for Ireland? You have more chance if getting heaven without being dead!
Our politicians too busy stuffing their pockets to actually implement any actual development, much easier to waffle about it.
@Ken Smyth: I am one of those 300k and now have 600MB fibre to my door. Are you proposing they come and disconnect 300,000 people so Siro can come and reconnect us again with different cables??
Nationalise it! labour TD alan kelly was saying that last night. after labour sold off bord gais for a song.
@Sean Conway: I forgot he existed. If he was in power he’d happily sell all to the highest bidder.
@Dave Thomas: probably his brother
@Sean Conway: Can we deport Alan Kelly please or put him in a large padlocked box?
@Dave Thomas: And happy gilmores excuse for privatising the bins was. ‘ah you wouldn’t pay for bin charges’. well we did eamonn. through taxation like we always did. good riddance to labour.
@Sean Conway: and FF sold eircom for buttons
With the National Broadband Plan now lying in ruins, Naughten, who has made a complete mess of this and been totally outmanoeuvred needs to either resign or be removed. Proper, fibre rural broadband (not the crap provided by vultures like Imagine) is essential for this country. Nothing less will do.
Another unmitigated disaster brought to you by Fine Gael.
@Niccolo Saccho: Where is Frank when FG need him-”feeling good
@Niccolo Saccho: Because FF managed it so well before? There is nothing to do with the parties and all to do with legacy obligations on former monopolies restrictions from the EU.
@Niccolo Saccho: This issue pre-dates the current government and is independent of party politics. Eir have been scaling-back on this for some time and this withdrawal is not unexpected. It will have little or no real impact on the project.
@Kal Ipers: rubbish, and you know it!
@Gus Sheridan: Did you read the restrictions on Eir? It is the truth
Why didn’t the government supplement this to make it viable for Eir. It would have long term benefits ergo more companies relocating there to pay etcs, spend money etc. Why is the government so shortsighted? Ireland is not Ireland anymore, its Dublin and the rest.
@Jason Burns: EU regulations on unfair practices is why. Why should the government subsidise a private company in a competition with others?
@Jason Burns: it would have worked fine if Denis Naughton hadn’t allowed eir to cherry pick the good bits, ( 300,000 easy to get to subscribers) SIRO not interested in the crumbs on the table and a smart financial play by eir, they own the network so why should they let anyone else on it for less than full commercial rates, ENET haven’t a hope unless tax payer picks up the tab for the real cost of accessing eir’s privately owned network.
By the time Ireland gets around to it wired broadband will be obsolete. Abit like the phone network
@oh i dunno: Irish high speed broadband, from the people that gave you your postcodes, what could go wrong?
@oh i dunno: 5G will almost make it obsolete and it will be here faster
@Brian Carroll: That’s what the Government are hoping for . The private sector to introduce 5 and 6G broadband to make the scheme unnecessary.
@John Quill: 5g and 6g will still have all the inherent issues of signal. You could have gigabit Internet being pumped through the air on every frequency imaginable but it’s not going to fix Joe is Roscommon who still has 0 bars on his phone at home
@Daniel Wilson: Not to mention the fact that there isn’t the spectrum available for what 5G would need to be fully operational. There is no 1 solution fits it all scenario in Ireland. It will take a mixture of all technologies, but in the long run, the only way to do it properly is to run Fibre with all the electric lines in the country, but that won’t happen in areas not worth it to them.
The days of PPPs are over. The private companies cannot get the funding as their finance model has changed. Just look at Carillion, Capital and the two power plants in Dublin. Public Private Partnership is dead in the water and the government need to get their heads around that…
The National broadband plan is uncertain, but what’s certain is our useless gov will give themselves another pay rise soon enough!
Denis the menace said no foreseen price increase coming, lies. People allegedly already received communication from Eir about a price hike. Elected representatives telling us bare faced lies!
Privatising Eir worked so well in the past sure they had to do it again. We will be buying it back again in a few years and people in rural areas will still be lucky if they can check hotmail.
National infrastructure should be state owned. Simple
@Michael Webb: too late, FF sold it Gov would have to buy it back
Eir and the government actually ruined the tendering process by roling out broadband to 300,000 home’s and businesses BEFORE the winner was announced, hence no real profit for the winner? And now that Eir has new owners, who want to cut costs massively they are withdrawing and leaving and putting it all back to square one…..!
Of course “French billionaire Xavier Niel buying a majority stake in the company in December last year”, has nothing to do with this clusterf**k ! What a load of manure.
Another private/public marriage fail for FG.
And then An Taoiseach claims he is not sure of the implications of Eir’s withdrawal.
Well here’s one….at least he won’t have to worry about rural children being exploited by the internet. I guess there is an upside to everything! What a donkey.
I was going to move my phone and internet to EIR, but now I won’t.
@Jorge Thompson: Move to Eir ? If you have a phone line into your home at the moment, then you are using Eir infrastructure. The majority of phone/broadband companies are simply resellers of Eir services.
@Jorge Thompson: no matter who you are with your phone Line belongs to EIR
@Mike Daly: Exactly. I remember that when people in Maynooth went with other providers and there were reported huge delays caused by Eir who didn’t allow the competition to access the necessary connections. I wonder when rural broadband will ever be a reality.
eir-eircom = worst company in Ireland
@Leitrim303: Actually I signed up to their TV/Broadband package fully expecting 18 months of hardship, frustration and nonexistent customer service. I have to say, so far its not terrible, I have TV , I have uninterrupted (for the most part) Broadband at 21st century speeds even though I live in the sticks.
This is something the state should be doing (it could have been done with the money wasted on Irish Water). The delay is really holding Ireland back.
As someone who lives in rural Ireland, I feel very lucky to have been connected to fibre last November.
This is Eir we’re talking about. If there is zero profitability and large investment required they will do their puppy face and withdraw. I’m not a fan of them especially after they sucker punched my mum into a ridiculous 24 month contract most of which she doesnt need. €85 a month. ouch.
@Finn Faulkner: Is your mother not an adult who can read a contract?
@Kal Ipers: That’s a bit unfair. Written contracts are long gone. It’s all done over the phone by a sales person. The cumulative costs of line charges, monthly costs, VAT, etc are often only clear when the bill comes in.
Another fg ff mess no doubt.allowing eir to cherry pick from built up easily accessible areas.pull the plug after that
On the radio this morning it was announced “west Cork, west Kerry and Roscommon were the worst counties for Broadband, Is it correct to say that the Minister for Communications is from Roscommon!
He knows how to look those that voted from him, unreal, less that 2 hours drive from our great capital and your in the outback!
Broadband will be rolled out about the same time the undocumented in USA get status!!!!!
I live in a rural area and I have Eir fibre Broadband yet my daughter who lives 2 miles from me can’t get it. Ironically she needs it far more than me for her work.
I wonder if Denis O’Brien is involved with enet?!
Wait and see enet get the contract. Eir have or will put in more cabinets,upgrade their lines and rent their equipment and lunes to enet. More money iguess to be made that way
If you choose to live in the middle of nowhere in some one off house, why would you expect to have broadband wired to your home?
@Kevin Kirkpatrick:
That would be my house you are talking about and I have Eir Fibre Broadband. What has living in a rural area got to do with anything, in case you don’t know we do have schools, small businesses , people working from home etc. etc. etc.
@Kevin Kirkpatrick: it’s about quality of life. Didn’t know we had internment in Ireland. So we have a choice. The PALE springs to mind. I just changed from eir to Vodafone to get 20mb of broadband. Fibre optics 100m from me. Cmon
@Kevin Kirkpatrick: For the same reason I have water and electricity delivered to the house. All three services should come down the same channels. Mine isn’t some one-off house as it’s been here for 150+ years. The future of rural Ireland is online and many people such as myself who do work for others all over the world don’t want to live in cities. I’ve never lived in a town or city in my life as I don’t like them and prefer the natural environment to concrete.
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: Why don’t you all pay more property tax then? Why should Dublin have to pay for all of this?
Why did they quit the what?
@Jackie Carvill Caruana: headline changed so comment no longer applies. :)
Another fine mess brought to you by second rate political class ,too worried about their personal image and the colour of their socks ,this could only happen in ireland .the narrative is dublin cork ,limerick ,galway and fcuk the rest .they mada a complete mess of irish water ,how they have the cheek to take a salary ,brexit another dogs dinner on the horizon .gombeens
Yes another FF legacy disaster we now hav to pickup the tab for.
We elected them didn’t we.
Never ever !!!!!!
Couldn’t make a business case stack up. Money money money. One million profit no good. Our aim is fo 20 million. Then it’ll stack up. Haha. What’s Government do – we’re still working on it.
Heard their disingenuous CEO talking about complex process on NewsTalk this am. Complete nonsense.
This is about Air not being able to compete. They have a debt mountain. Legacy P&T culture. Poor service history. They need to fix their issues first.
Expecting this dinosaur to be part of the national development plan was always at risk. Am glad they pulled out. Could be more credible about why.
Best thing for Air is liquidation and fire sale assets. They are a spent force.
@Mairtin Cathbhar: one aspect of the P&T legacy culture is s positive one in my experience, The technical people in my rural area are experienced staff with a sense of duty to the public. My experience of flash new telecoms companies is that they have the Ryanair approach to customer problems and the tech on the ground will give the impression he was flipping burgers last week and will be selling hoovers next week.
@Squiddley Diddley: Maybe so, but it would also make a fine excuse to deny alternative companies access to equipment needed to connect citizens to the worldwide web.
@Mairtin Cathbhar: Eir love them or hate them are the people that own the network and if rural broadband is to happen, ENET will have to go cap in hand to EIR and the tax payer will have to pay through the nose, Denis Naughtons was well aware that when he signed the contract with EIR for the 300,000 connections guaranteed by end 2018, that Siro were going to pull out of the tender process and he was “played”
Naughton is has made a mess of the broadband rollout. He is also responsible for Ireland meeting its 2020 renewable energy targets.
Who cares.. people are lucky.. Eir are total rubbish.. better off without them
simple take the apple 13bn, and spend it on rural broadband, mental health affordable housing and the homeless.
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