Almost 18000 westmeath premises require state intervention for broadband

As many as 40 per cent of the homes and businesses in Westmeath are in areas that will be relying on state intervention to give them high-speed broadband, Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Alex White, admitted in Dáil Éireann last week.
Minister White was replying to a query raised by Deputy Robert Troy on the status of broadband services provision in Ballymore (see photo).
Deputy Troy had asked about what quality of broadband was available in the village, and what percentage of people had access to it.
In response, Minister White reminded Deputy Troy that in November of last year, a national high speed coverage map for 2016 was published.
“The areas marked blue represent those areas where commercial providers plan to deliver high speed broadband services by end 2016,” said Minister White.
He stated that the areas on the map marked amber will require state intervention, and Ballymore is in an amber area.
In total, he said, 17,814 premises in Westmeath are in areas that will require state intervention.
“I understand that commercial high speed broadband service is already available to over 20,000 premises in County Westmeath (45% of county premises).
“When commercial roll-out of high speed services in the county is complete by the end of next year, a further 6,500 premises in Westmeath (15% of county premises) will have access to such services,” the minister said.
The minister said that intensive design and planning work is under way in his department to produce a detailed intervention strategy for the AMBER area.
“Following a public consultation process on the draft Intervention Strategy this summer, I hope to move to formal procurement phase towards the end of this year in order to select a preferred bidder or bidders.
“I anticipate that the first homes and businesses will be connected in 2016 and connections will continue thereafter, with the intention of having all premises connected within a five-year period,” he said.