Mr. Joe Lavin from National Broadband Ireland gave a presentation to the members on the National Broadband Plan Project as follows:

·         The aim of the programme is to ensure every premises has access to high speed broadband – NBI have been contracted to build a full fibre network to connect 544,000k premises.

·         The project includes utilisation of 1.466m poles and 143,384km of cabling and world leading technologies to futureproof the network. While using existing infrastructure where possible to create sustainable and cost effective deployment. Customers will receive up to 1Gps with minimum speed of 500Mbps.

·         Surveying is continuing nationally and back on track following delays due to the pandemic and build works will be initiated in all 26 counties in 2021. This is a seven year programme.

·         There are 227 Deployment Areas (DA) across the country facilitating 194 local exchanges, 33 Regional Exchanges which will all connect to Data Centres mostly based in Dublin. The NBI is currently actively working across 60 DA’s. Regional Exchanges will be built first– this is to ensure that there is a solid backhaul network connection to the data centres and the deployment area is 20km in radius

·         There are 19,126 premises in Roscommon identified as without access to High Speed Broadband  representing 49% of the total premises in the county. The NBI investment in the county is approx. €75m.

·         There are 5 Regional Exchanges to serve Roscommon – Ballinasloe, Roscommon, Athlone, Carrick on Shannon and Longford.

Roscommon DA– 2,993 premises, Build Underway, Est. date for connections July 2021 – Sept 2021

Carrick on Shannon DA– 2,042 premises; Survey complete; Est. date for connection May 2022- July 2022

Ballinasloe DA : 668 premises; Build underway; Est dates for connection June 2021 – Aug 2021

Athlone DA – 623 premises; Survey Complete; Est. Date for connection Apr 2022 – June 2022

·         There are 17 Deployment Areas that make up the County Roscommon rollout area.

·         Broadband Connection Points (BCP) will provide free high speed internet access with many offering remote capabilities – 270+ will be rolled out nationally.

·         8 BCP locations and 32 schools in Roscommon are in scope to connect to high-speed broadband. Seven of the eight BCPs are live in Roscommon with one in progress. One school is live with the remainder in planning phase.

·         Local Authorities, community groups and representative bodies are involved with stakeholder engagement with NBI. There are no live events at present – all consultation is done online.

·         A dedicated point of contact for Public Representatives to get in touch with NBI is reps@nbi.ie and is live Monday to Saturday.

The Members welcomed the presentation and progress to date in Roscommon and had a number of queries for Mr. Lavin:

·         When will there be updates on the grey areas

·         If a premises is not on the list, why not?

·         How many premises will be connected in 1 year.

·         The Monksland area of Athlone is less than a mile from a Regional exchange but the current service from Eir is not good,

·         What is the logic of people in rural areas being the last to be connected via local exchanges?

·         What is the situation with telecom poles where they are not going to be utilised.

·         At what stage should a new build house contact NBI for a connection?

·         Will Eir exchanges be used or disbanded?

·         Where Eir have provided connections halfway down a road will the network be extended under NBI?

·         What is the maximum speed? With fast evolving technology and a total investment of €3bn, is there a possibility it will be overtaken.?

·         Has there been any discussion on fast tracking rural areas due to the current pandemic and remote working?

·         There are signs for NBI on South Roscommon advertising the rollout in Co. Galway – can this be addressed.

·         The current service provided by Eir is not up to standard.

·         When the broadband service is rolled out – is it envisaged that the cost of broadband will decrease to customers?

The Chief Executive complimented the NBI for their approach and confirmed that additional resources will be provided by Roscommon County Council in facilitating the broadband roll out in Roscommon including planning, road opening licences etc.

Mr. Lavin responded to the questions raised as follows:

·         In 2021 close to 5,000 will be completed in Roscommon and there will be ongoing engagement with customers. It is expected 11,000 will be completed by 2023.

·         NBI have a detailed SLA with ENet and Eir with regard to their infrastructure including exchanges, poles access to their co location equipment etc. NBI will not build new exchanges.

·         NBI will provide a wholesale service to all providers – if a customer is not happy with their service provider they can move to another provider.

·         EIR have a stringent SLA with Government re fault repairs etc. and there are onerous penalties.

·         Everyone on the list does not have access to high speed broadband and NBI are building out from exchanges so they cannot frontload rural areas first. They also have to provide equal progress all around the country.

·         NBI have access to existing telecom infrastructure including poles. There is a Local Authority Liaison team working with the Broadband Officer in each county. If there are poles to be replaced, alternative mechanisms may be used. NBI are working with the roads authority re standardisation

·         Adding on to the Eir 300 exchange – all premises are included that were provided by Department.

·         The minimum speed provided will be 500MB

·         The cost of the project id €2.6bn plus VAT. Any cost savings in the project, the Department will get 60% clawback.

·         Satellite service is €99pm plus €400 installation and there is no guarantee of provision of service.

·         Eir is rolling out fibre optic cable in urban areas as is NBI

·         The same wholesale price will be charged by NBI and there will be competition between service providers for customers

·         When a new build happens and there is an Eircom provided, a quarterly update from the Department will capture this. If a new premises is to be constructed, they should include a duct for broadband connection if they are on the route.