EU Funded North-South Cross Border Cooperation
As part of the National Development Plan the Government is working with the Northern Authorities to ensure a better telecommunications infrastructure for the whole island. Working in tandem the two Governments can stimulate competition and investment in telecoms on the island.
A number of projects in the telecoms sector in the cross border area have been undertaken by this Department in conjunction with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) under the EU INTERREG III Cross Border Cooperation Programme 2000-2006. The projects were 75% funded by the EU. The Special European Union Project Body (SEUPB) is the managing authority.
DETI and DCENR cooperated under the Telecoms Measure of the INTERREG III Cross Border Programme on 6 projects listed as follows:
Broadband Awareness Campaign
A television information campaign to promote awareness of what broadband is. The adverts went live on July 10th 2006 and were directed at Small and Medium Enterprises and residential users.
Bytel Broadband link between Belfast and Dublin
The Bytel project provided an additional 2.5 GB service between Belfast and Dublin. There are breakout points in Dundalk, Drogheda, Armagh and Newry, The project is price competitive for the leased line business and has removed the border as an international barrier. A backhaul link has also been created from Monaghan via Armagh for the Monaghan Metropolitan Area Network (MAN).
Armagh Monaghan Digital Corridor
The Armagh Monaghan Digital Corridor (AMDC) project links Armagh and Monaghan. The AMDC, which went live in mid October 2006, is a cross-border business corridor linking the counties of Armagh and Monaghan with a 1 GB broadband service to help create a digital corridor. The regions are linked through business centres known as a:tek and m:tek, located in Armagh and Monaghan respectively. The centres provide some of the most advanced accommodation designed for technology businesses in Ireland and are linked through state-of-the-art communications systems.
Both centres will provide attractive bases for start up and existing high-tech companies keen to avail of state-of-the-art workspace, benefit from cluster synergy, to improve their working environments and to have access to the best telecommunications systems available in Ireland.
Niran/HEAnet
A grant was allocated to the third level bodies Niran (Nibest) and the HEAnet, the organisations which manage the Third Level network in the North West of the island of Ireland. The project links Letterkenny IT to the Niran presence in Derry. This means that the entire education and research network in the Republic [HEAnet] is now connected to Northern Ireland’s SuperJANET network [NIRAN].
Community Network Solutions
This proposal aims to bring broadband to large swathes of Donegal, to enable the communities communicate more efficiently with each other. The benefits of the project will be felt by communities on both sides of the border due to the large migratory workforce along the Donegal border.
Blackwater Valley Project
A community broadband initiative to provide broadband in South Tyrone/North Monaghan.