BROADBAND
Fine Gael will establish "Broadband 21" which will invest €1.8 billion over four years to build a high-speed fibre infrastructure throughout the country. The goal is to get Irish broadband speeds into the top five of OECD countries - with one million Irish homes connected to fibre - by the end of year four.
The botched privatisation of Eircom, combined with a Government failure to develop a coherent broadband strategy, means that Ireland is now well behind its competitors in broadband. According to the National Competitiveness Council, broadband penetration among firms in Ireland is the second worst among the EU-15, and is particularly low among small businesses. Even where broadband is available, it is often 0f such low quality (bandwidth) that it not capable of supporting the "next generation" services being rolled out in other countries.
Broadband 21 will amalgamate and build out the diverse telecom assets of existing State companies, including Bord Gais, CIE, ESB and the MANs (managed by Enet for the State), to create a new, pan-national, open-access, next generation broadband network. The associated investment will be paid back by leasing our capacity to telecoms carriers and directly to home and business customers.
The vast bulk of Broadband 21's €1.8 billion investment in telecoms will be used to drive investment in the so-called "last mile" of the network - the link from the exchange in the town to the cabinet on the street, and from the cabinet on the street to the home. In most areas, this part of the network is still low-capacity copper wire, and is the major obstacle to high-speed broadband connectivity.
Broadband 21 will enter into discussions with other telecom and cable companies (with a specific focus on Eircom) to upgrade this last mile infrastructure to fibre in the most highly populated areas of the country. We believe that up to one million Irish homes can be connected to fibre over the next four years.
Click here to download our policy document
Fine Gael will establish "Broadband 21" which will invest €1.8 billion over four years to build a high-speed fibre infrastructure throughout the country. The goal is to get Irish broadband speeds into the top five of OECD countries - with one million Irish homes connected to fibre - by the end of year four.
The botched privatisation of Eircom, combined with a Government failure to develop a coherent broadband strategy, means that Ireland is now well behind its competitors in broadband. According to the National Competitiveness Council, broadband penetration among firms in Ireland is the second worst among the EU-15, and is particularly low among small businesses. Even where broadband is available, it is often 0f such low quality (bandwidth) that it not capable of supporting the "next generation" services being rolled out in other countries.
Broadband 21 will amalgamate and build out the diverse telecom assets of existing State companies, including Bord Gais, CIE, ESB and the MANs (managed by Enet for the State), to create a new, pan-national, open-access, next generation broadband network. The associated investment will be paid back by leasing our capacity to telecoms carriers and directly to home and business customers.
The vast bulk of Broadband 21's €1.8 billion investment in telecoms will be used to drive investment in the so-called "last mile" of the network - the link from the exchange in the town to the cabinet on the street, and from the cabinet on the street to the home. In most areas, this part of the network is still low-capacity copper wire, and is the major obstacle to high-speed broadband connectivity.
Broadband 21 will enter into discussions with other telecom and cable companies (with a specific focus on Eircom) to upgrade this last mile infrastructure to fibre in the most highly populated areas of the country. We believe that up to one million Irish homes can be connected to fibre over the next four years.
Click here to download our policy document
Ireland will have 50% electric cars and be a New Exporter of Energy.
50% of our water is wasted. We'll upgrade the entire system.
Over 105,000 new jobs will be created over a variety of regions and skill levels.
