Stoneyford ignored one more time!

In Stoneyford there is:

• No Post Office.
• No Garda Station.
• No Public Tansport.
• No Broadband.

Do our so called political representatives know we exist? We should let them know.

Vote with your head not your heart

Due to the fact there are still a large number of areas across the country without access to high speed broadband, the Department carried out a mapping exercise as part of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) intervention. The map outlines current and planned broadband coverage across the Country. On the map, premises are designated in Blue areas if they are to be addressed by commercial operators or Amber areas if they are to be addressed by the Governments NBP intervention.

The entire village of Stoneyford, County Kilkenny falls within the Amber area and so is to be covered by the intervention. When an area is Amber and to be included in the intervention, it means that there are no current or planned high speed broadband services there as operators have made it clear they cannot address it commercially. The Governments intervention aims to ensure a reliable high speed broadband network is extended to these areas, providing at least 30Mbps to all homes and businesses, including your own.

This is a large and complex project, the aim is to get it right and ensure a high-quality, high speed broadband infrastructure is delivered. This requires careful planning and the Department must take account of the various legal and regulatory obligations that exist, both in terms of national and EU laws.

It is expected the physical build of the network to begin in late 2016 and is expected to take between 3 to 5 years to complete. The network will be rolled out incrementally to communities from 2016. The company or companies selected to complete the rollout will include rollout times in their bids. The Intervention Strategy proposes that 60% of the premises in the Intervention Area are covered by December 2018 (85% of the country) and 100% by December 2020.

There are a number of stages to the intervention, the launch of the map being the first. Steps 1 and 2 have completed while steps 3 and 4 are now underway:

Ø  Step 1 – Map Consultation
National Coverage map will be published for public viewing – Completed

Ø  Step 2 – Strategy
Draft a strategy for intervention and public consultation on the draft intervention strategy – Completed

Ø  Step 3 – State Aid Application
Start of the EU State Aid application

Ø  Step 4 – Procurement
Start the procurement process to identify a preferred bidder and then issue request for tender document

Ø  Step 5 – Commencement – The building of the high speed access network commences.

Step 6- Dream on.