Minister for Communications, Denis Naughten, promised the establishment of a task-force to report back to the government by the end of the year on ways to improve mobile reception and broadband access across the country. The group met for the first time on Wednesday.
Minister Naughten and Minister Heather Humphreys co-chaired the first meeting of the Taskforce on Mobile Phone and Broadband Access. The formation of this panel was a 100 day commitment under the Programme for a Partnership Government and complements the work of the National Broadband Plan (NBP).
Minister Denis Naughten commented: “The establishment of the Taskforce was a 100 day commitment and it has commenced its work on day 82 of this Government. I am confident that the Taskforce will deliver on a work programme that will see immediate solutions to the broadband and mobile phone coverage deficits and alleviate some of the difficulties being felt by families, businesses and the young and elderly across rural Ireland. The Taskforce has been organised as a complementary measure to the NBP intervention in order to alleviate those deficits, particularly in rural Ireland, prior to the commencement of the full build and rollout of the NBP in June 2017. I have recently signed into law a Statutory Instrument which transposes an EU Directive on the Cost of Broadband. The SI is now published and it obliges operators of utility networks such as telecommunications, electricity, gas, transport and waste water to share information about their infrastructure with providers of high speed broadband networks. It also allows access to these networks unless there are objective reasons why they can’t e.g. safety, continuity of the principal utility services. Another SI is expected over the coming months which will require developers to install telecommunications service ducts when constructing new buildings which will include office blocks, apartments, industrial estates and one-off houses.”
Who's who?
The Membership of the Taskforce is as follows:
- The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
- The Department of Arts, Heritage, Rural, Regional and Gaeltacht Affairs
- The Department of Housing and Local Government
- The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
- The Office of Public Works
- NewERA
- Transport Infrastructure Ireland
- Teagasc
- Trinity College CCTV (Telecommunications Research Centre)
- The City and Council Managers Association (CCMA)
- Irish Rural Link
- The Irish Country Women’s Association
- Business Representatives based in rural Ireland
- The National Competition and Consumer Protection Commission
- An Independent Planning Adviser
- The Commission for Communications Regulation is participating on the Taskforce as an observer in order to provide advice and guidance in its capacity as the independent Telecommunications Regulator.
What next?
As the task-force settles into their new role, those living in broadband-less parts of the country continue to wait for anything of any real consequence to take place. The contract for implementing the National Broadband Plan will be awarded and signed around this time next year.
Once that's done, the national rollout will begin. It's hoped that every home in Ireland will have access to high-speed broadband by 2020.
