From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
Published on
Open for submissions from
Submissions closed
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Consultation is closed
On 7 May 2019, Government approved the appointment of Granahan McCourt as Preferred Bidder in the National Broadband Plan State intervention. The government decision means that it is intended to award the State intervention contract to National Broadband Ireland. This is the final step in the State's National Broadband Plan ('NBP') procurement process before a contract is awarded and deployment begins in the Intervention Area.
Since 2013, the department has engaged in an extensive process of mapping broadband availability in Ireland in order to identify areas which have no existing or planned Next Generation Access (NGA) networks. At this point, it is now important to give the department certainty with respect to the scope of the Intervention Area. Therefore, following this consultation, the department will conclude its mapping exercise and confirm the scope of the Intervention Area for the purposes of the deployment.
Through this consultation, the department is seeking submissions from network owners or operators that have either:
The department also invites retail service providers, premises owners and/or consumers of broadband services that reside in areas marked as Blue or Light Blue on the NBP Map to submit information in particular on the following:
Stakeholders may also submit other comments or observations which do not fall under the above mentioned categories.
It is not expected that there will be a material change to the broadband map in terms of numbers of premises. Notwithstanding any adjustments to the Map deemed appropriate by the department following this consultation, up or down, the capped subsidy submitted by Granahan McCourt and approved on 7 May by Government, cannot increase, it can only decrease.
In accordance with Article 3.2 of the EU Guidelines for the Application of State Aid Rules in relation to the Rapid Deployment of Broadband Networks concerning public consultation, Member States should give adequate publicity to the main characteristics of the measure and to the list of target areas by publishing the relevant information of the project and inviting comment.
The consultation documents are available in pdf form below.
A number of submissions have been received from small operators requesting a further extension to enable the finalisation of submissions currently under preparation and the department has decided to grant a further extension to conclude at 5pm on Monday 30 September 2019.
While this further extension is being agreed in order to facilitate a number of small operators, any operator/citizen, who may have made a submission by the notified closing date of 20 September, 2019 and who may wish to augment their submission or for whom the additional extension would facilitate the finalisation of a submission is entitled to avail of this extension.
Submissions should be sent to nbpmapping@dccae.gov.ie or:
Nuala Dormer, National Broadband Plan Division, Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, 29-31 Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, Ireland, D02 X285.
This consultation is now closed.
Please note that no further requests for extensions will be entertained under any circumstances.
Responses to this consultation are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 and Access to Information on the Environment Regulations 2007-2014. Confidential or commercially sensitive information should be clearly identified in your submission, however parties should also note that any or all responses to the consultation are subject in their entirety to the provisions of the FOI Acts and are likely to be published on the website of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.
By responding to the consultation, respondents consent to their name being published online with the submission. The department will redact personal addresses and personal email addresses prior to publication. We would draw your attention to the department's privacy statement:
The Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment requires responders to provide certain personal data in order to provide services and carry out the functions of the department. Your personal data may be exchanged with other government departments and agencies in certain circumstances, where lawful. Full details can be found in our Data Privacy Notice which is available here or in hard copy on request.
The department received a number of submissions to the consultation which were carefully considered by the department in accordance with its published Assessment Criteria and in consultation with its expert technical advisers, Analysys Mason. The department also consulted with the European Commission and ComReg, in relation to the submissions received and the department's assessment of this.
The output of this public consultation can be seen in the following Summary of Findings and associated Annexes and has allowed the department finalise the scope of the Intervention Area pre deployment now comprising of circa 537k premises.
The 2019 NBP Mapping Consultation Summary of Findings document was updated in January 2020.
The department contacted all operators to request that they submit a non-confidential submission to be put onto this consultation page. Contained in the list of submissions below are all the operators who have responded to this request.
