IrelandOffline have quietly been working on a plan

IrelandOffline have quietly been working on a plan.

IrelandOffline believe that one of the key goals of any “Smart Economy” is to have fibre running to within a few kilometres of every citizen of that “Economy”. With the lack of vision and leadership from the Department of Energy, Communications and Natural Resources it fell to IrelandOffline to help drive some form of coherent national policy forward. Even in these straitened economic times access to broadband is still a burning issue and this issue still needs to be addressed for the benefit of the country. Better access to broadband nationwide will help to drive industrial growth forward.

What have we achieved?

The problem
The problem thus far identified is the lack of optical fibre throughout the regions and various failed and halfhearted attempts to roll out said fibre.

The solution
With this in mind IrelandOffline felt it was necessary to approach the next tier of government in this country. This level of government comprises of 8 Regional Authorities who are tasked with generating Regional Planning Guidelines, into these plans IrelandOffline helped to insert a Regional fibre ducting plan. This was the only available solution to the urgent task of creating a nationwide fibre optic network. The Regional Authorities plans for their region, include provisioning of essential infrastructure and the Local Authorities in those regions are required to make provision for a duct system alongside new or realigned roads. It is this ducting system that IrelandOffline wants the Regional Authorities to mandate for the installation of fibre optic cables. IrelandOffline have persuaded the Regional Authorities that providing ducting is essential for the future of the economy and of their regions and this ducting will henceforth be designed and installed during all major civil engineering works including sewerage, water and roads(1).

This simple yet highly effective plan, will allow for fibre ducting to be built out throughout each of the regions. This is a key building block for our vision of a “Fibre connected Nation” and sadly that goal has been ignored by successive Ministers and governments who have put no vital national guidelines in place nor acted on their own published reports.

We would like to publicly acknowledge and thank all those across the country who have helped us achieve this significant goal and believe this to be a great day for Ireland.

Now we have a plan, let us all build on these foundations. We now need to progress the plan for universal fibre across the entire state.We urge those with an interest in this vital area to ensure that each county development plan now transcribes the new regional guidelines.

(1) Final IrelandOffline wording:

To maximise the potential of the ICT sector it should be ensured that: new multiple unit developments should contain chambered telecommunications ducts and subducts of not less than 28mm diameter to each premises; that single unit developments should present a single subduct to the outer curtilage on a public road; that carrier neutral ducting is installed during significant public infrastructure works such as roads, water and sewerage and that all ductings are recorded and mapped; that existing ducting along publicly owned infrastructure is considered to provide backhaul connections where possible; and that reasonable broadband speed and access is provided to each citizen and business within the Region to ensure a competitive service and in order to facilitate an evolutionary, globally competitive, efficient and sustainable society and economy in line with the “Digital Agenda for Europe