NBP

News

National Broadband Plan Coverage – An Election Special

Universal coverage? Christmas has passed and it’s time to sober up and take a look at what the Department are saying to prospective NBP tenderers rather than the froth reserved for the general public. The bad news is that all the talk of a comprehensive and conclusive broadband solution has been premature. According to the Project Information Memorandum, tenderers will be invited to submit bids on a sliding scale of coverage. Each percentage point below 100% is to yield a saving to the government in the form of a reduced subsidy. The unlucky ones – it could be 22,500 homes...

News

Infrastructure

Another day another directive. This time Europe wants utility owners in member states to see the sense in sharing their infrastructure, so for instance, instead of building two completely separate pole and duct networks to carry fibre optic cables in rural areas, there would be open-access infrastructure that would serve all telecoms providers on a transparent equitable basis. So far, so common sense; and the department were, at one time at least, adamantly in favour, “..there will be no duplication of infrastructure. We are required under state aid guidelines to avoid this, but it is also a logical step that...