The Government is seeking one tender under the new National Broadband Scheme to extend Ireland's broadband coverage to the far reaches of the island.
This could be taken up by one operator, but it's expected a consortium of businesses tendering together will win the contract to bring broadband to the estimated 100,000 households that are yet unserved.
Built-in to any contract will be 'concurrent competition powers', meaning customers will ultimately have a choice of operator when the broadband network has been rolled out.
The Department acknowledged today that growth has been slow and was hampered by Eircom's privatisation in 1999.
The Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey said there was no investment in the network after the privatisation of Eircom, and as a result the extent of broadband penetration in Ireland is two years behind where it should be.
The tender winner will be incentivised by Government to build the broadband infrastructure, so under the National Broadband Scheme there will also be a clawback clause, meaning that should the project record unanticipated profits these will be returned to the Exchequer.
A shortlist will be drawn up by July 5th this year, and it's hoped the service will begin to be rolled out by the end of 2007.
