Broadband expansion - No village should be left behind

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte announced yesterday that the Government is to begin mapping out the broadband availability throughout the country in line with the national broadband plan to provide high-speed service to all parts of the country through a combination of public and private investment.

The mapping process is designed to identify those areas where government intervention will be needed to ensure the introduction of the necessary high-speed broadband services required by the plan, which was launched by Mr Rabbitte last August.

“We will work our way through a map of Ireland, community by community, to see which streets and roads, which towns and villages, will be offered fast broadband by the commercial operations, and, as a result, to spot the gaps that we need to fill with state-supported investment,” Mr Rabbitte said yesterday.