Irealand’s National Broadband Plan (NBP

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) contract, which was signed on 19 November 2019, provides that a future proofed high speed broadband network will be deployed by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) to people living and working in the Intervention Area (IA). It is expected that over 600,000 premises, including new builds, will be connected over the lifetime of the project. The NBP network will offer those premises in the Intervention Area a high speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 500 Mbps from the outset. All counties have seen premises passed in the first 2 years and over 90% of premises in the State will have access to high speed broadband within the next two years. The build is currently based on a full fibre to the premise network. This Plan is the largest infrastructural project in rural Ireland since rural electrification, spanning 96% of Ireland’s land mass. It will bring high speed broadband to 23% of Ireland’s population (69% of national total of farms). It will deliver fast, reliable broadband through laying 140,000 km of fibre cable, utilising over 1.5 million poles and over 15,000 kilometres of underground duct networks

The plan will be delivered through investment by commercial enterprises coupled with intervention by the State in those parts of the country where private companies have no plans to invest.

Read the updated version National Broadband PlanState Aid Reporting – Third YearUpdate

The State Intervention area includes:

• over 560,000 premises
• 1.1 million people
• over 65,000 farms
• 44,000 non-farm businesses
• 679 schools

The NBP is a key aspect of government strategy across areas including climate, agriculture, education, transport, tourism, sustainable growth, jobs and health.

Since the publication of the NBP in 2012, the commercial telecommunications sector has invested over €3.3 billion. At the time, 30% of Irish premises had access to high-speed broadband.

Investment was spent primarily on upgrading and modernising networks which support the provision of Gigabit broadband and mobile telecommunications services. Significant additional investment is expected over the coming years. Now, of the 2.4 million premises in Ireland, 77% can access commercially available high-speed broadband services of more than 30 Mbps.

Strategic Community Points (SCPs) are a key element of the NBP providing high-speed broadband in every county in advance of the roll out of the fibre to the home network. To support connected communities, approximately 284 publicly accessible SCPs known as Broadband Connections Points (BCPs) will be connected to high-speed broadband this year. BCPs assist communities gain access to high-speed broadband in advance of the main NBP deployment.

The NBP will contribute significantly to removing the existing digital divide between urban and rural communities in Ireland.

The NBP story

To deliver the National Broadband Plan (NBP), the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) went through a rigorous procurement process to choose a company to build, operate and maintain a high-speed broadband network. This was to ensure service to all premises in the State where commercial operators do not provide, and have no plans to provide, this service.

On 19 November 2019 the government signed the contract for the National Broadband Plan.

Further information regarding the NBP procurement process can be accessed here.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI)

For the most up to date information on the deployment of high speed fibre within the intervention area visit www.nbi.ie

State aid

The European Commission approved the National Broadband Plan in the context of EU State Aid rules. The Commission issued the decision on 15 November 2019. The Commission has published a non-confidential version of its detailed decision under case number SA.54472. The full decision is also available to view in State Aid SA.54472 (2019/N) – Ireland National Broadband Plan.

In line with the State Aid transparency rules, as of 1 July 2016, Member States are required to notify on a public website beneficiaries of all individual aid awards above €500,000. The Transparency Aid Award document was updated on the EU Transparency Award Module on 9 July 2020 with reference number TM-10196357. It contains the identity of the granting authority, the identity of the individual beneficiaries, the form and amount of aid granted to each beneficiary, the date of granting, the type of undertaking, the region in which the beneficiary is located and the principal economic sector in which the beneficiary has its activities.

In line with State Aid Transparency Rules, the Evaluation Plan, interim Evaluation Reports and yearly State Aid updates will be published.

Project governance and compliance

The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) manages contract governance as the contracting authority. The Department has a core existing team supported by specialist external services to effectively manage the NBP Contract. These include technical, commercial advisory, business process and legal services.

A robust governance structure has been established within the Department to monitor contract compliance across technical, governance, compliance, financial, commercial, and project implementation work streams and includes a NBP Senior Management Team. In addition, Department/NBI Engagement Groups have been established to oversee various aspects of the Programme.

The activities of these groups include engagement and discussion on issues relating to Deployment, Operations, Financial, Communications, Compliance and Governance. Formal meetings are supplemented with informal engagement between counterparts on an ongoing basis.

To protect the State investment and ensure that the NBP milestones and deliverables are met, the contract has been designed to include extensive protections, quality checks and reporting and monitoring obligations.

Interactive broadband map

The High Speed Broadband Map shows the areas in the State which are included in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) as well as areas targeted by commercial operators. The Map is colour coded and searchable by address and Eircode.

High-Speed broadband rollout

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the largest infrastructural project in rural Ireland since rural electrification, spanning 96% of Ireland’s land mass. It will bring high speed broadband to 23% of Ireland’s population. It is anticipated that the network will involve a total of 140,000km of fibre cable and over 1.5 million poles from networks throughout the country with over 15,000 kilometres of underground duct networks for fibre cable.

Where possible, overhead lines and existing poles will be used to lay/hang the fibre cables. This is a sustainable approach which saves time and money.

New networks, like the NBP, are based on optical fibres as it future proofs the network. The capability for optical fibre cable to carry vast amounts of data over long distances is what makes it so effective.

What is involved in connecting communities?

The first step in deploying fibre is a survey to establish the state of existing poles and ducts and review if any repairs are needed. This involves teams physically inspecting each pole and duct as well as gathering detailed information on the specific local conditions. This information is then fed back to the design teams so that detailed designs can be completed for each area.

After surveys and development of detailed designs are complete there are a number of stages required within each deployment area to roll out the new high speed broadband network including:

• Repair/activities (“Make Ready”) carried out to ensure existing infrastructure is sufficient to pass the premises with fibre;
• Installation of and connection to electronic equipment in each Local Exchange building
• Laying of the physical fibre along the poles and ducts
• Fibre build quality checks, network testing and handover within NBI
• Upload of specific fibre build details by premises to computer systems within NBI, enabling retail service providers to make connection orders visible on their respective systems which in turn allows premises’ owners to place orders
• Customers can then place an order and request a connection to be scheduled with the retail service provider of choice

Following a review which assessed the impact of COVID-19 and other delays to the Programme, it was concluded that the NBP Programme is currently running some 12 months behind schedule. The Department continues to engage with NBI to explore the feasibility of accelerating aspects of the NBP based on current projections. Acceleration will mean mitigating delays and delivering the project within the current projected timeframes, that is, by 2026.

Further information on progress to date is available on the NBI website. The NBP network offers users a high speed broadband service with a minimum download speed of 500Mbps.

A Final Remedial Plan under the contract, was finalised in December 2022. Under this Plan, NBI is committed to delivering a cumulative target of 185,000 premises passed by the end of January 2024.

The latest available information on the rollout and when your premises will be connected can be found on the NBI website.

Strategic connection points (SCPs)

The government is ensuring early connection to high-speed broadband in key locations in rural communities. The SCP initiative is a collaborative effort involving the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the Department of Rural and Community Development, the Department of Education, Local Authorities and the owners and managers of the BCP sites.

There are two types of SCPs, community facilities for public access and primary schools for educational access. A full list of the connected BCPs is available from National Broadband Ireland (NBI).

In advance of homes and businesses receiving future-proofed broadband directly to their door, the SCPs provide vital high-speed internet access at locations within the intervention Area.

The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) is working with the Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) to deliver high-speed broadband to specified Strategic Connection Points (SCPs) in advance of the roll out of the fibre to the home network . The majority of these locations, in areas of community importance, will be connected with high-speed broadband under the NBP State intervention deployment, in advance of wider deployment reaching these areas.

To support remote working and connected communities, approximately 280 of the around 284 publicly accessible BCPs, identified by local authorities, to be connected to high-speed broadband are installed and operational.

The high-speed broadband service will be switched on in these locations through service provider contracts managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development for publicly accessible sites, and the Department of Education for school BCPs.

Schools broadband connection points

We continue to work with the Department of Education to prioritise schools with no high-speed broadband, within the Intervention Area. Further details of schools in scope are available on the NBI website.

By H1 2023 all schools across the State will have the necessary infrastructure to carry out their critical day to day educational activities unimpeded by poor broadband.

School BCPs delivered under the National Broadband Plan (NBP) will ensure that primary school pupils in Ireland will be able to participate fully in the digital revolution. A BCP at a school location will provide connectivity for pupils and teachers and will underpin the Department of Education’s Digital Learning Framework for Schools.

Commercial activity

• Extensive investment plans are in place by a range of commercial operators. These plans will see improved high-speed broadband access across the country. A number of commercial operators have announced further investment plans in high-speed broadband
• Eir have stated that it will roll out fibre to a further 1.6 million premises, bringing their fibre deployment to some 1.9 million premises
• SIRO is currently completing the first phase of its fibre deployment and to date has passed more than 430,000 premises with gigabit services and it has recently announced plans to extend its network to an additional 320,000 premises
• Virgin Media is offering 250Mbps as a standard offering with 500Mbps and 1Gbps available to many of their customers across the more than 1 million premises that they cover
• Other network operators and telecom service providers across the State also continue to invest in their networks