Two providers remain in the running…
Open-access broadband provider, SIRO, has announced its withdrawal from the National Broadband Plan tender process.
In a statement, SIRO, a joint venture between the ESB and Vodafone, cited an inability to, “Develop a competitive business case to justify continued participation in the National Broadband Plan bid process,” and therefore had opted to withdraw from the process.
Two companies, Eir and Enet, remain in the running to secure the bid.
SIRO said that their original plans to build a One Gigabit broadband network in 50 regional Irish towns are unaffected by this recent announcement.
According to RTE, their decision to pull out follows a deal struck between Eir and the government in April which removed 300,000 rural homes from the National Broadband Plan and would instead be connected to high-speed broadband by Eir by the end of next year.
The cost of connecting these homes is thought to be less due to their location close to towns etc than some of the more remote properties remaining on the plan, and hence made the contract a less appealing prospect for providers.
The National Broadband Plan is a government wide initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all businesses and households in Ireland. They define high speed broadband as a minimum speed of 30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload.
The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment are currently looking for a company or companies who will build a high speed broadband network in the State Intervention Areas.
Below is a map of the High Speed Broadband network in Ireland (you can find an interactive one here).
The High Speed Broadband Map identifies locations and premises as being AMBER, BLUE or LIGHT BLUE.
- AMBER areas – which are the target areas for the State Intervention of the National Broadband Plan.
- BLUE areas – where commercial operators are delivering or have indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services. Operators are continuing to enhance their services in these areas to improve access to high speed broadband.
- LIGHT BLUE areas – new areas where commercial operators have committed to deliver high speed broadband in rural areas. The commercial rollout to these areas is primarily Fibre to the Home (FTTH). By 2018, all homes and businesses in these Light Blue areas can expect significant improvement to their broadband services.
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