National Broadband Plan: Ups and downs
The roll out of the National Broadband plan (NBP) has brought with it both good and bad news, with the blow of the inevitable Covid-19 delays softened by the revelation that the connections eventually enabled will be over three times faster than originally planned.
After years of delays with regard to planning and procurement, it would, perhaps, have been wishful thinking to expect the NBP to be rolled out seamlessly after the contract for the project was formally awarded to the National Broadband Ireland (NBI) consortium led by Granahan McCourt, including KN Group, Secto and Actavo. Yet even the most ardent of critics of the previous governments’ actions around the plan and the delays in the roll out of a scheme that has been in the offing since 2013 could have predicted that the next delay in the NBP’s long story would be caused by a pandemic.
It has fallen to Department of Communications officials to brief new Minister Eamon Ryan that the Plan has become yet another casualty of the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The briefing informed the Minister that recruitment and accommodation difficulties for contractors caused by Covid-19 are among the most pressing of issues facing the projected timetable for the rollout.
The target of the NBP is to connect approximately 540,000 premises across Ireland to high speed broadband across a seven-yar long rollout. Targets within that overarching objective include having 115,000 premises connected by the end of 2021, with 70,000–100,000 connected each year thereafter. However, the briefing for Minister Ryan does also contain the welcome news that the Department and NBI are together exploring the feasibility of delivering high speed broadband for the premises not due to be connected until years six and seven on a shorter timeline than originally envisioned.
90 per cent of premises within the State are due to have their connections to high speed broadband by the end of year four of the rollout, but now there is the possibility of that final 10 per cent having its waiting time cut down, with subcontractors Eir, eNet, Actavo and KN Circet said to have commenced planning and development on behalf of NBI. 300 public WiFi Broadband Connection Points are also due to be rolled out in various locations in order to facilitate connectivity in areas where homes and businesses are waiting for connection.
The NBP has also seen its hardware vastly upgraded,
with the speed of connection due to be rolled out to the 540,000 premises now set to be over three times faster than originally planned. The original basic speed planned for the NBP rollout was 150 megabits per second (Mbps), but this has now been upgraded with NBI stating that the basic package will now be launched with speeds of 500Mbps.
The briefing by officials informed Minister Ryan that deployment of the NBP has continued “in line with the advice provided by the Government and HSE during the Covid-19 event and key mobilisation and design activities continue to be progressed”, but it is admitted that “Covid-19 has impacted the delivery of the NBP Programme”, specifically the “efficiency of the design process and the development of the operational environment processes and tools”. Accommodation availability and the recruitment issues are also raised, with recruitment said to be “more difficult online”, but officials also say that “mitigation measures, where available, have been taken to minimise the impact”.
As was revealed by the Irish Independent in July 2020, the NBP has also seen its hardware vastly upgraded, with the speed of connection due to be rolled out to the 540,000 premises now set to be over three times faster than originally planned. The original basic speed planned for the NBP rollout was 150 megabits per second (Mbps), but this has now been upgraded with NBI stating that the basic package will now be launched with speeds of 500Mbps. The package, expected to be priced at €40 per month, will now enable rural premises to be connected an internet speed quicker than most city-based or high-speed connections.
NBI will operate as a wholesale provider, meaning that packages will be delivered to retailers and sold by them among other, rival internet packages. The increase in speeds is believed to be due to a recent price cut by Eir that placed their 500Mbps service at the same price as their 150Mbps service. Underlying prices for the NBP are tied to those offered by the country’s largest operators, which includes Eir, and as such NBI was left with little choice but to provide faster speeds at a cut price.
500Mbps is not in the upper range of broadband speed that fibre-to-the-home networks like that being rolled out by the NBP are capable of providing, but as well as being over three times faster than the original plan, it is also over 10 times faster than a typical mobile broadband connection. Speaking upon the formal announcement of the improved speeds, NBI executive chairman David McCourt said: “Since the global Covid-19 pandemic struck in Ireland over six months ago, many people’s lives have changed significantly and we are much more reliant on digital connectivity than ever before. Today’s announcement to increase our minimum speeds empowers every person, every school, every farm and every business in the intervention are to gain access to truly world-leading speeds.”
Also relevant to the pricing of the upcoming scheme is the possibility of cuts to wholesales rates by ComReg, under pressure from the EU. As the NBP is prepared for roll out, much of it on infrastructure leased from Eir, the regulator has said it will review the weighted average cost of capital rate and consider reducing it from 8.18 per cent to 5.61 per cent, a move that is projected to cost Eir at least €125 million in leasing poles alone, not taking further additional revenue loss from the other infrastructure it leases to private operators.
In June 2020, NBI named Nokia as its major supplier in the deployment of the plan, with Nokia providing 100 per cent of the active equipment required, with the fibre-to-the-home network based on next generation passive optical network technology. With it having been confirmed by NBI that Carrigaline, County Cork will be the first townland to connect to the high speed network later this year, it appears that years of delay and frustration are coming to an end and progress is finally set to begin.
