Rural broadband scheme dealt a blow as ESB and Vodafone pull out of the running

ONE OF THE bidders for a lucrative State contract to provide broadband to hundreds of thousands of rural homes has pulled out of the process.

A joint venture by ESB and Vodafone, called Siro, had been competing for the tender but before final bids were submitted today the group informed the minister its bid would not be moving forward.

It means now that only two bids, one by Eir and one by Enet, will be competing for the final award, which will be made next year.

The decision by ESB and Vodafone represents a blow to competition within a procurement process that has been beset by delays since it was first announced in 2012.

The tender the two remaining bids are competing for is to supply high-speed broadband to 542,000 premises in rural areas that are not currently being served by commercial operators.

The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment says the two submissions will be examined over the coming weeks before a final bid is sought.

The department could not confirm when work would begin, but it was hopeful the project could get underway next year.

At present, Eir is already in the process of providing broadband to 300,000 rural homes and businesses, putting premises outside the areas that require State intervention.

Other population centres are seeing investment by private operators, with minister Denis Naughten saying today that the ESB-Vodafone consortium remains committed to investing €450 million across 51 towns.

Amber areas fall under the National Broadband Plan

Current figures show that 1.5 million premises have access to high-speed broadband, representing about 67% of those in the State.

At a briefing today, Naughten pledged that this would increase to at least 91% by 2020, adding that he can understand why people are frustrated at the lack of progress.

“People are doubtful and you can’t blame them for being doubtful. Because people have been promised, broadband and broadband and broadband and it didn’t happen. It is actually happening now,” he said.

“About 50% of the queries I meet going up and down the country is from people who say it’s coming to their neighbour or it’s coming to me and I haven’t been connected, so people do actually see it being built out.”

Reacting to today’s pullout by ESB-Vodafone, Fianna Fáil said it was evidence of a “convoluted, ham-fisted and drawn out process” presided over by the government.

“The net effect of this is a reduction in competition, and more than likely will lead to a spiralling in costs for taxpayers,” spokesperson Timmy Dooley TD said this evening.

Written by Rónán Duffy and posted on TheJournal.ie