Scheme to make broadband available to every premises

BROADBAND is to be available to every home and business in the country by the end of next year.

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has launched a new rural broadband scheme which aims toidentify the remaining premises in rural Ireland that are unable to obtain a broadband service and to provide a services to those premises where requested.

While the completion of the Government’s National Broadband Scheme (NBS) means broadband services are available in 99% of the country, the remaining 1% of rural Ireland remains unserved. These areas were too remote to be included in the NBS for a variety of technical reasons.

The new initiative is designed to identify those premises through a public application process and to bring a broadband service to them either through existing private sector service providers or through a service provider procured by the Government.

The Department of Communications intends to conduct a procurement process under EU rules to select an internet service provider for the scheme. This service provider is expected to be appointed in the second half of this year.

Mr Rabbitte said: “I am now launching this scheme to identify the remaining small percentage of premises that have not been able to procure a broadband service and to provide broadband to such premises which cannot be served by the existing market.

“My department will be accepting applications for a three-month period starting now, so there will be ample opportunity for people to come forward with details of premises that cannot obtain a service.”

President of Macra Na Feirme, Alan Jagoe, welcomed the scheme and said people living in rural areas deserved the same level of broadband as their urban counterparts.

“Having access to broadband should be on a par to access to electricity. Broadband is no longer a luxury, it is essential infrastructure especially for the rural economy and no part of Ireland should be without quality accessible broadband,” he said.