National Broadband Ireland : implementation and progress

NBI has gone to every operator in the market and asked for potential solutions to address specific scenarios. One of the scenarios is exactly what the Deputy represented, that being, if Eir or another commercial operator's fibre is going past a particular home, can NBI extend it to address that home? Five companies have been shortlisted as part of the process. NBI is anticipating that it will start piloting the implementation of solutions for scenarios like that early next year. If the pilot is successful, it could be rolled out to a greater number. It could potentially include point-to-point solutions from wireless solutions. Where the best and most feasible solution to a scenario in the shorter term is point-to-point from a wireless provider and if there is an opportunity to do so, then that will be on the table through the process in question.

Further details seen by the Business Post show that 272,000 premises across the country have been surveyed, while "detailed designs" have been completed for 226,000 of those homes and businesses.

Fewer than 3,000 homes and businesses have been connected to high-speed internet under the multibillion-euro National Broadband Plan in the first 21 months of its rollout, the Business Post has learned.

The €5.7 billion rural broadband scheme is now lagging far behind its initial rollout target of making the network available to 115,000 premises by the end of the second year of the contract, which runs until the end of January 2022, and is now aiming to reach just 60,000 premises by that date instead.

As of mid-October, National Broadband Ireland (NBI) had passed just 17,000 of those 60,000 premises.

The Business Post has learned that of those homes and businesses with access to the network, just 2,700 had signed up and been connected to it by October 27.

The revelation is likely to heighten fears about the slow pace of the rollout and the prospect that tens of thousands of customers will have to wait years for a reliable high-speed broadband connection.

With less than one-third of the 60,000 premises passed fresh doubt is also likely to be cast on NBI’s ability to meet its targets for 2021 which it only revised downwards earlier this year. A further 13,000 or so premises can “pre-order” broadband from NBI.

NBI has been contracted to connect 544,000 premises and about 1.1 million people over the course of the seven-year rollout.

Further details seen by the Business Post show that 272,000 premises across the country have been surveyed, while “detailed designs” have been completed for 226,000 of those homes and businesses.

It typically takes about 18 months from a property being surveyed for broadband to be made available to a customer.

NBI, which is headed by David McCourt, the US businessman, is in a race to survey, pass and connect as many homes and businesses as possible before the end of the year, having already faced severe criticism for the significant delays in rolling out the network to date.

The Business Post first reported that just 632 of the 540,000 premises covered by the plan were using the network as of mid-June.

NBI and the Department of Communications both declined to provide details of the number of premises using the network since controversy flared over the small number of connections revealed by this newspaper.

The Business Post, however, last week obtained the most up-to-date figures on the rollout, including the number of connections to the NBP network to date.

NBI has attributed the delay to the Covid-19 pandemic which it said slowed its progress and restricted some subcontractors from carrying out work on the network at the same pace as they otherwise would have, despite work being permitted to carry on over the last 18 months.

A spokesman for NBI said the company was “continuing to scale its operations in every county across Ireland to deliver the NBP as quickly and effectively as possible”.

He added: “NBI has previously indicated that 60,000 premises will be passed by the end of its contract year and that remains the current projection.”

The spokesman said connections to the network were “above the industry average, and growing all the time”.

Ossian Smyth, the junior minister at the Department of Communications, last week told the Dáil that in addition to the Covid-19 pandemic, NBI had faced “a range of other challenges due to the sheer scale and complexity of rolling out fibre to the home in a rural environment”.

“These include significant tree-trimming to ensure cable can be placed on overhead poles, remediation of ducting that has been in place for many decades, the coordination of hundreds of contracting crews and addressing the many issues arising weekly which could not have been foreseen until the building crews commenced work on the ground,” he said.

It remained the government’s intention to roll out the rural broadband scheme “as quickly as possible”, he added.

NBI has 280 employees working for it, as well as a team of more than 900 sub-contractors.

The company has claimed relief under the contract for delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and, as such, has not faced any penalties for missing its targets to date.

However, NBI is under further pressure to accelerate its rollout and make up lost ground as financial penalties can be levied against the company from February 1, 2022 should it continue to miss milestones.

Subsidy payments can also be withheld if premises aren’t passed in line with targets agreed with the department. NBI has yet to agree 2022 targets with the department.

Any further delay could also open the door to private operators seeking to expand their networks into the NBP’s intervention area.

Eir already took 300,000 premises that had been earmarked for the NBP and instead brought its network to those homes and businesses thus removing them from the state-backed plan before the final NBP contract was signed.

Commercial operators haven’t publicly stated their intention to make similar inroads into the area covered by the NBP since then, but the possibility is envisioned under the contract which provides for contingency payments to be made to McCourt’s company under such a scenario.

Encroachment contingency payments are capped at a total of €100 million under the terms of the contract and included in the overall maximum state subsidy of €2.7 billion.

Peter Hendrick, the chief executive at NBI, told the Oireachtas Communications Committee last month he was confident the seven-year rollout plan could be delivered on time, or earlier, and on budget.

NBI has been paid €132.3 million by the state since the rollout began in January 2020.

All of the major fibre installers have had delays and have been affected by Covid. I have spoken with them directly about that. NBI is a brand new company which is not directly comparable with Eir. It is reliant on contractors with which it has shorter relationships.