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Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte today announced progress with the Rural Broadband Scheme which aims to identify the remaining individual  premises in rural Ireland that are unable to obtain a broadband service and to provide a service to those premises where requested.

Minister Rabbitte said “To-date, we have had over 2000 applications under the Scheme and my Department will be accepting further applications until the 29th of July, when the application phase of the Scheme will close. I would encourage people to apply under the Scheme if they cannot currently obtain a service”.

While the completion of the Government’s National Broadband Scheme (NBS) means that broadband services are now available throughout the country, there are remaining un-served rural premises which could not be included in the NBS or which are difficult to reach for mainly technical reasons. The Rural Broadband Scheme is designed to identify those premises through a public application process and, ultimately, to bring a broadband service to them either through existing private sector service providers or through a service provider procured by Government.

“The Rural Broadband Scheme was launched to identify the remaining small percentage of premises that have not been able to procure a broadband service and to provide broadband to such premises which cannot be served by the existing market” said Minister Rabbitte.

The Scheme aims to identify the premises that cannot currently obtain a service and once all of these premises have been identified, to ascertain whether existing telecommunications operators can provide a service directly to these premises. If an existing service provider cannot be identified, the Department will seek to procure such a service. The combination of private and public sector programmes in the broadband market will ensure that Ireland reaches the EU target of ubiquitous basic broadband access ahead of the 2013 deadline.

The Regional and Local Authorities and rural representative bodies have played an active and valuable role in raising public awareness of the Scheme and the Minister paid tribute to them for their efforts.

“I am conscious of the importance of the role played by the Regional and Local Authorities and their staff in raising public awareness of the Scheme, as well as the input and assistance of bodies like Irish Rural Link and the Irish Local Development Network. The key aim here is a cooperative effort at central and local government in conjunction with representative bodies and agencies to achieve the best outcome for rural communities.”

Full details of the Rural Broadband Scheme are available on the Department’s website http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Communications/Communications+Development/Rural+Broadband+Scheme or www.dcenr.ie and follow the link for the Rural Broadband Scheme. Alternatively, interested parties can contact the information line at 1850 678100.