Director of Services, Mr. Shane Tiernan presented the members an update on Broadband rollout in the county:

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) were planning on presenting an overview of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) rollout in Roscommon to council members on March 30th last. Unfortunately, due to the measures put in place to alleviate the spread of Covid19, this was not possible. NBI plan to make a presentation to elected members at the earliest available opportunity.  Close to half of the population of Roscommon have no access to high speed broadband. This translates to over 19,000 premises across the county.

Under the National Broadband Plan (NBP) Roscommon will see an investment of €76M in the new high speed fibre-to-the-home network. This will enable e-learning, remote monitoring of livestock or equipment, e-health initiatives, better energy efficiency in the home, and more remote working.

The first phase of the NBP involves on the ground surveying, to assess current infrastructure - such as poles and ducts - which may be used in constructing the roll-out of the new high speed fibre network. These inform the design for the network ‘build’ that is required in each area.  On April 27th last NBI surveyors began this work in Roscommon in the areas of Ballymurray, Athleague, Castlecoote, Dunamon, Ballymacurly, Lackan, Kilroosky, and Four Mile House.

NBI also carried out surveys in south Roscommon as part of the Ballinasloe area works. Some areas covered were Taughmaconnell, Ballydangan, Cornafulla and Old Town. They will spend several weeks surveying, so that network designs can be completed for these areas for the build phase.

Operating at scale across the country, NBI will be building in 11 of 227 separate deployment areas by end 2020 and in every county nationwide next year. Some premises in Roscommon can expect to be able to connect to the network next year.

NBI are also responsible for installation of the Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) which are an important element of early delivery of access to high speed internet in the Intervention Area (IA) set out in the NBP. These will enable free public connectivity in various locations across the county and country. In Roscommon, up to eight BCPs will be available to the public in the next 12 months and these include community centres in Tawnytaskin, Gortaganny and Cam, Dangan, Ballybay (Tobohan pulled out), Drumboylan, Creeve, Tulsk, with enhanced broadband at schools in Tarmon and  Ballagh. Site inspections took place at each site in Roscommon during February and March. Cam will be the first site to receive the infrastructure on 26^th May.

Further information including National Broadband Ireland contact information is included in the members correspondence pack.

§  Boyle - Eir have commenced their rollout of fibre broadband to Boyle town. Fibre will be placed through existing ducting from the fibre enabled cabinets to each premises. Eir has service available to 35% of Boyle at this point, over 600 premises. The majority of these premises are to the north and east of the Boyle town - Rockingham Road, The Warren, Abbeytown Road and estates, Deerpark Estates, Part of the Main Street, Around Marian Road

§  Roscommon - Eir have submitted their Road Opening Licence T1 application in order to commence fibre rollout in Roscommon Town.

The Broadband Officer continues to work on a number of other initiatives including WIFI4EU and the Digital Strategy which will be before the members later in the year.

The members welcomed the presentation and discussed as follows:

• Welcome the NBI teams to Roscommon to commence work. Surveying is done but need to move quickly to design and installation.
• Covid-19 brought it home the urgent need for high speed broadband service in the county with so many people working from home.

·         Issues with extension of broadband connections from Eir outside the stated distance from the exchange

·         50% of the residents have no access to good broadband. If a vaccination for Covid is not found quickly, more people and businesses will be working from home and need this facility.

·         What is the level of connections Eir have achieved in the county?

·         Need for more uploading than downloading speeds.

·         What are the arrangements availing of the mobile units at community centres.

·         Some villages such as Tarmonbarry have good broadband and it is a huge asset to the area. It facilitates people working from home a couple of days a week where their normal working base is in Dublin. Castlerea has good broadband and it is also a very positive benefit to the town as it is now almost fully enabled.

In reply to queries raised, Mr. Tiernan confirmed that NBI will be back working as soon as condition s will allow. He outlined the extension of the area where broadband is and will be available and the details are available on the broadband website.

The Open WIFI hubs are all funded by the Department and a managed service with 24/7 access.  

On the PROPOSAL of Cllr. Leyden

SECONDED by Cllr. BYRNE

It was AGREED that a letter be sent to the Government to seek the progression to design and build stage next year of the implementation of broadband contract in Roscommon, now that surveying is complete.

On the PROPOSAL of Cllr. Keogh

SECONDED by Cllr. Ward

It was AGREED to send a letter to the Chief Executive Office Eir to review their policy on the rollout of broadband at exchanges. It is not acceptable that some houses are not facilitated within a short distance of exchanges.

On the PROPOSAL of Cllr. Crosby

SECONDED by Cllr. Naughten

It was AGREED to send a letter to all service providers to ensure that there is a policy in place to ensure the installation of broadband is carried out correctly and not have a negative visual impact.

On the PROPOSAL of Cllr. Connaughton

 SECONDED by Cllr. Waldron

It was AGREED to write to the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure to assess the effect of online shopping and to consider taxation of same.

On the PROPOSAL of Cllr. Kilduff

SECONDED by Cllr. Naughten

It was AGREED to write to the head of Eir Infrastructure to carry out a condition survey of all infrastructure including poles to ensure they are in good condition to facilitate broadband.