Imagine Communications announced a plan this Wednesday to install new fixed wireless technology, making broadband connections available to 1.1m new addresses within 18 months.

Some 325 masts using the 5G network will target customers in rural areas, representing a €300m investment. The company said speeds of up to 150Mb would be available – faster than currently available through traditional phone points, but slower than fibre optics.

According to company figures, 400,000 homes, farms and businesses among the 540,000 dependent on the Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) will be covered by the service by June 2020. The service will cost €59.99/month including VAT.

"The reality is that rolling out fibre to every home is a lot more expensive and takes a lot more time than people expected and will take years to deliver even in urban areas, let alone rural areas," said Imagine chief execuive Sean Bolger.

Fibre roll-out

The announcement comes after the national operator eir announced on Monday that it would complete the deployment of fibre to 335,000 rural homes in towns and along main roads this June. This investment will also chip away at the number of customers dependent on the NBP, connecting 80,000 to 100,000 to high-speed broadband.

Reducing the number of customers dependent on the NBP is good news for those covered, but makes it comparatively more expensive and less attractive for a contractor to deliver the Government plan for those remaining in more remote areas. This was widely seen as the reason for several high-profile bidders pulling out of the NBP process over the past two years.

Reviews

There has been no public announcement on progress with the NBP since a review concluded last September that the tender process to choose a contractor and connect every farm and rural home was not compromised by private meetings between the leader of the only remaining bidder enet, David McCourt, and former Minister for Communications David Naughten, who resigned over the controversy.

In a separate development this Wednesday, Minister for Communications Richad Bruton published a review of enet's management of the existing state-owned metropolitan area networks shared by all broadband providers to reach their customers.

"This review raised a number of matters of concern," Minister Bruton said, referring it to the regulator ComReg. This includes pricing for access to the infrastructure managed by enet and compliance with the networks' code of practice.

The main companies involved in broadband provision will appear before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee this Thursday.

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