20 minutes with Colin Cunningham

Lorcan Allen speaks to Colin Cunningham, chief executive of Cignal, a telecoms infrastructure provider for Ireland’s fibre, broadband and mobile networks.

Lorcan Allen

8 August 2018

Colin Cunningham

Where are the worst blackspots for broadband and mobile reception?Most areas in Ireland can get some form of wifi or mobile broadband coverage. However, the speed is often not dependable. There are still blackspots in some of the cities. So it’s not just a rural issue. However, the less populated areas of the country are the most poorly serviced in terms of broadband and mobile coverage.

Where are the worst blackspots for broadband and mobile reception?

Most areas in Ireland can get some form of wifi or mobile broadband coverage. However, the speed is often not dependable. There are still blackspots in some of the cities. So it’s not just a rural issue. However, the less populated areas of the country are the most poorly serviced in terms of broadband and mobile coverage.

Why are these areas so poorly serviced?

In many areas it was difficult to get planning to build network towers due to local opposition 10 to 15 years ago. In the 1990s, people didn’t have wireless internet, let alone mobile. So the whole idea of a wireless connection felt like the dark arts to them. However we’ve seen a big change in attitude in recent years because wireless is normal today. There’s now an openness in communities to support the investment we’re prepared to make because there is a requirement for good broadband and mobile coverage.

How do you engage with communities today?

We take a partnership approach to local communities, particularly with the farmer or landowner where we aim to build a tower on their land. We will strike an agreement that works for everyone. The farmer or landowner will make a return but I’m sure they also feel they have helped benefit their local community by hosting a mobile and broadband tower. Cignal has a number of sites in current development and recently delivered new towers in Portalington, Longwood, Dunlavin, Goresbridge and Stocking Lane in Dublin, helping to significantly improve services in these areas.

Is planning an issue?

For me a fast-track of the planning process for mobile and broadband towers would make it so much quicker to roll out fast internet to the entire country. It can take anywhere from 12 weeks to 18 months to get planning for a tower. County Councils, are quite supportive of what we do but it just takes one letter to An Bord Pleanála and projects are delayed significantly.

When will we see high speed broadband in all of rural Ireland?

Genuinely, I think we’re going to see a lot of activity in improving mobile and broadband in the next two to three years, with investment from both industry and government. Regardless of the National Broadband Plan consumers can’t wait anymore. There are 500,000 people without adequate broadband in Ireland, which is too many. This number will start coming down soon. And Cignal has the necessary finance in place to play its part in targeted developments.

Are more towers needed in Ireland?

As technology evolves and data demand increases, there is a requirement for more sites because you need a denser network. Internet-connected cars and technology like that will need a denser network of sites. In Dublin city there are towers every couple of hundred metres. As you move outside the city, the distance between sites widens to every 600m to 700m. In rural Ireland, sites are dotted every few kilometres so you’re trying to find one site that’s going to cover as many people as possible in an area. So the challenge is trying to find the right site.