Plan for full broadband coverage by end 2012

THE GOVERNMENT has set up a task force to extend super-fast next generation broadband across all areas of the Republic, according to Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte.

Next generation broadband enables very fast computer speeds allowing users to download entire movies or process large amounts of data in a matter of seconds. The task force is to include the chief executives of the major commercial telecommunications companies operating in the Irish market.

Discussions will focus on identifying private and State sector investment plans, removing barriers to investment and setting targets for services. It will be overseen by Minister of State Fergus O’Dowd.

The scheme is to get under way in tandem with the completion of the National Broadband Scheme, which has seen 99 per cent of the State’s premises able to receive broadband. Mr Rabbitte said at the weekend that a drive to find and link the 1 per cent of premises that did not receive broadband would be completed by 2012 at the latest.

The new move to upgrade the State’s entire network to super-fast status follows a successful investment in excess of €26 million which rolled out next generation broadband to 11 large towns in the midwest. The roll-out was undertaken by Shannon Broadband, an initiative of Shannon Development and local authorities in the midwest.

Shannon Development has also launched an eight-house live/work housing project in Tarbert, Co Kerry, on the Shannon estuary. The development, which is near a planned natural gas hub, involves providing advanced broadband access and a community-based training programme to help people use it.

The aim is to create new jobs through new business clusters.

According to Mr Rabbitte, the remaining 1 per cent of premises which do not have any access to broadband are in rural areas.

Under moves to identify and link up premises in these areas, property owners are being invited to apply to the Department of Communications for a connection over the next three months.

The first step will be to match an address to an existing service provider but if this cannot be done, or if a service provider cannot be encouraged to extend services to the applicant, the department will seek to procure such a service.

The combination of private- and public-sector programmes in the broadband market aims to ensure that Ireland reaches an EU target for ubiquitous basic broadband access a year ahead of the 2013 deadline.

Mr Rabbitte said the completion of the remaining rural broadband connections would promote economic and social development in such areas.

“It will be of particular importance to small-scale rural enterprises who will be able to trade their goods and services over the internet. This scheme will ensure that the remainder of rural premises will be able to get a broadband service and will make broadband available to anyone who wants it by the end of 2012.”

Details of the completion scheme are available on the department’s website www.dcenr.ie