Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte has launched an initiative aimed at making broadband access available to every home and business in the country by the end of next year.
The Rural Broadband Scheme aims to identify the remaining individual premises in rural Ireland that are unable to obtain a broadband service and to provide a service to those premises where requested.
In a statement on his department’s website, Mr Rabbitte said that while a mix of private and public investment has resulted in broadband internet access coverage to 99% of the country, there was still 1% without access.
‘I am now launching this scheme to identify the remaining small percentage of premises that have not been able to procure a broadband service and to provide broadband to such premises which cannot be served by the existing market,’ said Mr Rabbitte.
‘My department will be accepting applications for a three-month period, starting now, so there will be ample opportunity for people to come forward with details of premises that cannot obtain a service.’
There is already a National Broadband Scheme but unserved locations, which are extremely remote or cannot be served for technical reasons, will be targeted and a service provider identified by the Government.
The Department intends to conduct a procurement process under EU rules to select an internet service provider for the scheme.
This service provider will be appointed in the second half of 2011, according to the department.
While the details of the service and the level of infrastructure subsidy will be established in the procurement process, it is intended that the service provided under the scheme will be at least comparable to the service provided under the NBS.
