Tony Killeen T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources addressing a Shannon Development Seminar today, outlined the progress that the Government is making on rolling out broadband services around the country and in particular in the Shannon region.
“The Government has clearly demonstrated that it is committed to achieving balanced regional development and ensuring that people outside of our major urban centres have access to state of the art communications infrastructure through investment programmes such as the Metropolitan Area Network scheme,” commented Minister Killeen at the seminar.
“Already in the Shannon region alone, one Metropolitan Area Network has been completed and another eight are undergoing construction. We are starting to see significant increases in data traffic on the existing lit up networks and I am confident that as more of the new networks are completed they will contribute towards the growth in broadband subscriber numbers we are currently experiencing.”
Even in areas that fall outside the reach of the Metropolitan Area Network Programme, the new National Broadband Scheme will be there to ensure that all reasonable requests for broadband in unserved areas are met. It is intended that the contract for this scheme will be awarded in Quarter 2 of next year and the rollout of services will begin as soon as possible thereafter,” he continued.
“As the Communications industry moves towards the implementation of next generation networks, this Government will ensure that Ireland is best place to avail of the opportunities that the move presents and as a Minister of State in this Department of Communications, I am determined to ensure that consumers will benefit through faster and cheaper broadband availability no matter where they live,” concluded Minister Killeen.
ENDS
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