Mr. John Freeman, Broadband Officer updated the members on the rollout of broadband across the county:

National Picture:

·        National Broadband Ireland are responsible for the rollout of broadband to 544,000 homes across the country that do not have access to high speed broadband. This will involve the erection of 1.5m poles and 142,000km of cable.

·        Guidelines have been issued for the rollout. The Local Authority broadband officer, roads staff and planning staff assess each pole application to confirm compliance with the guidelines and a S254 planning application must be submitted for each pole.

·        Of the estimated 110,000 properties to be done in 2021 only 14,000 are passed which may be due to underestimation of the process of approval and many applications are not compliant with the guidelines.

County Roscommon;

•        There are 19,185 premises in Roscommon without access to high-speed broadband.- 49% of the total premises

•        Government will invest €76m in building NBP in Co. Roscommon.

•        9 Broadband Connection Points & 31 Primary Schools also in scope.

•        There will be 5 Regional Exchanges connected directly the Data Centres predominantly based in Dublin which will be built first and these will be connected to a number of local exchanges.

•        The county is divided into 17 deployment areas and these are at various stages of development of the project.

•        In the Roscommon Town Deployment area, 2,992 premises are included with the estimated date range for connection Nov 21 to Jan 22; in the Ballinasloe DA 773 premises are included and currently available to pre order

•        BCPs are public locations which have been selected by the Local Authority to receive high-speed connectivity in the early stages of the rollout. RCC are providing ongoing support to our 9 BCP sites through the Connected Hubs Fund to enhance and improve their facilities and make them more functional as a remote working Hub.

•        Council have access to the ongoing usage of the 9 hubs and the Wifi here is supplied by Vodafone

•        NBI have significantly updated their website and the public can check to see if their premises is included in the plan, the target dates and register their interest

•        WiFi4EU is a European initiative that promotes free access to Wi-Fi connectivity for citizens in public spaces including parks, squares, libraries, town centres and museums in municipalities throughout Europe. The Wi-Fi service will be free of charge, free of advertising and free from commercial re-use of data. Roscommon County Council were successful in receiving this EU funding to create up to 60 areas of free Wi-Fi within the county. The funding was split into 4 vouchers and Roscommon County Council are delighted to announce that Vouchers 1 & 2 have been completed under Phase 1 of the rollout and 28 Access Points are now live in the northern half of the County. Phase 2 installations are currently underway in the southern half of the county.

•        Roscommon County Council, received DRCD funding for a Digital Innovation Project called Emcall App and are encouraging people to download it. Groups register details of Defibrillators and trained CPR responders to enable emergency responders to summon help and access to nearest defibrillator.

The Cathaoirleach welcomed the update on the project and the members discussed as follows:

·        Is the projected connection date for Rooskey 2025/2026?

·        Thanks for the work done by the Council on the WiFi4EU project – the speed is very good. This facilitates people in rural areas with poor broadband and thanks to the businesses that have bought into the project – a good news story.

·        The location and operation of the hubs is a positive initiative. Is there liaison apps from the Council to NBI?

·        When will the service be available from Ballinasloe area following pre-order?

·        The NBI website is very good with good information.

·        Welcome the Defibrillator App another welcome addition.

·        Welcome community halls included in the project. However there is a problem if some people are left behind and not connected – it’s likely that broadband could be installed on one side of the road and not the other.

·        Welcome the installation of broadband in 31 schools as detailed in the presentation.

·        Can the Government speed up the rollout as some residents of rural areas will not have access to hubs until 2025.

·        Is the service in the hubs monitored and who will carry out repairs on community facilities?

·        Is there a time restriction as to when someone can connect to the broadband facility when available?

·        There has been great progress with the community hubs in the past 18 months, and it is unlikely that all areas will get broadband in the future.

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In response to queries raised, Mr. Freeman responded as follows:

·        The Council have no control over commercial operators

·        The Ballinasloe area is expected to be operational in two months time and  Roscommon Town next month.

·        There is an agreed process for the implementation of the project but there is some delay currently in relation to issuing licences for infrastructure as

·        Eir have been rolling out broadband in some locations.

·        The hubs have access 24/7 with 29minutes access at a time.

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