Broadband plan to include 170,000 more homes

The Government has been forced to widen the scope of the National Broadband Plan because of the large number of homes being left with low-grade connectivity in areas supplied by commercial operators.

The proposed intervention has now been extended to include an additional 170,000 homes, bringing the total up to 927,000, a figure which covers nearly half the State’s housing stock.

Minister for Communications Denis Naughten said the extension was needed to take account of "commercial telecoms investment which had not materialised and for which the department does not have any concrete alternative investment plans from the sector".

He also announced that the Government had opted to privatise the network on the grounds it would reduce the cost to the State by up to 70 per cent.

Mr Naughten, who had previously argued against the private ownership model, said the alternative would have required an additional €500-€600 million in capital spending.

“While I recognise the potential long-term value in the State owning any network that is built, I am advised that under the full concession model, the entire cost of the project would be placed on the Government’s balance sheet, with serious implications for the available capital funding over the next five to six years,” he said at a press briefing announcing the Government’s plans.

The decision to allow the network move into private hands elicited criticism from Opposition parties, however.

Fianna Fáil’s communications spokesman Timmy Dooley says the Government’s plan to hand over ownership of the proposed State-sponsored broadband infrastructure to private operators was deeply flawed.

“While this option will have short-term cost implications, the long-term benefits to the consumer and the projected revenues to the State represents the best value for money,” he said.

The department also confirmed the previous shortlist of the five potential bidders had been whittled down to three, with the State’s largest telco Eir, the ESB/Vodafone joint venture Siro and E-net, which manages the State’s broadband Metropolitan Area Networks, proceeding to the next phase of procurement. The two telcos which failed to progress were Gigabit Fibre and Imagine.

In a statement, Eir said it was looking forward to constructively engaging and participating in the competitive tender phase of the process which commences later this month.