West of Ireland broadband provider challenges decision over next generation standards

A broadband provider in the west of Ireland has brought a High Court challenge to a decision that its network does not meet next generation standards under the National Broadband Plan.

Lighthouse Networks, trading as Lightnet, claims the decision by the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment means its functional area will not be excluded from the national plan and that it will then have to compete with the State subsidised service.

Lighthouse says it provides broadband to more than 6,000 premises in Galway, east Offaly, Clare and up to the border of Roscommon. It claims its technology is 30% more spectrally efficient than the current best licensed wireless access services.

It has, it says, spent €5m building up that technology over the last 14 years.

Mr Justice Charles Meenan granted permission to bring judicial review proceedings against the Minister following one-side only represented application on behalf of the company. The case comes back in April.

Lighthouse seeks an order quashing the Minister's decision last November that it operation does not meet the essential characteristics of the next generation access network.

Had it been,the Lightnet area would have been excluded from the national €2.7bn broadband programme area.

Therefore, it says, it would not have to compete with a State-backed broadband provider which could undercut its prices.

It seeks a declaration the Minister's decision is invalid because it does not comply with the criteria set down in a report prepared for the Government by PwC. It is also claimed the decision infringes its legitimate expectation.

Alternatively, it says, there is an underlying bias by the Minister against the technology Lightnet uses.

Lighthouse director Des Chambers, who is also a lecturer in computer science in University College Galway, says in an affidavit the company engaged with the Department and its advisers throughout the assessment process in the expectation that it would apply assessment criteria reasonably, fairly and in line with practice in other EU jurisdictions.

It also relied on the Department's assurance that its (department's) technical experts would attend an on-site meeting to deal with detailed matters.

"Neither of these expectations were met", he says. The impact of this has been the company has not further invested or expanded its network despite having grown rapidly.

The business is now flat lined, Mr Chambers says.