State investment of €200m required for broadband plan

STATE INVESTMENT of about €200 million along with matching funds from private telecom companies will be required as part of a national broadband plan to be launched today.

The plan will be focused on smaller urban centres and rural areas. More than 40 per cent of Irish homes already have access to very fast broadband – but they are centred in the major urban areas.

Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte is to launch “Delivering a Connected Society – A National Broadband Plan for Ireland” at Croke Park this morning.

The plan is based broadly on the Report of the Next Generation Broadband Taskforce, published last May.

The taskforce’s membership included the chief executives of the six main telecoms service providers in Ireland.

The Minister is said to be determined that, despite budgetary pressures, the less-populated areas of the State will now get fast broadband. “The only way to persuade telecom companies to go into thinly-populated areas is to provide a bit of State cash,” said one observer.

State aid clearance by the European Commission will almost certainly be required, in order to guarantee that public funds are not substituting for potential private sector investment. Preparation of that application is to start straight away and the public funding may come from either the exchequer, the sale of State assets or other sources such as the National Pension Reserve Fund.

The Minister is said to have received strong support in Cabinet for his proposal and he has had detailed discussions with Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan and Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar on the broadband plan.

Mr Rabbitte is expected to announce target speeds for urban and rural broadband. “His timeline is to achieve a significant leap in speeds for people all across Ireland within the lifetime of this Government,” according to a source.

The next generation taskforce looked at how services such as television and video conferencing could be delivered via broadband but did not specify target speeds.

The Coalition is committed in the programme for government “to provide next generation broadband to every home and business in the State”. The plan being launched will set out the “policy and investment framework” to deliver this commitment.

Ronan Lupton, of telecoms lobby group Alto, said previous administrations had drawn up ambitious broadband plans, but the key now was to “implement and execute” the current plans.

He also said local government should be “encouraged to have broadband strategy at the front of their minds”.

The number of broadband subscribers in Ireland has grown from just over 400,000 to nearly 1.7 million over the past five years.