Broadband development together with the harnessing of related Information Age technologies has been identified by the Irish Government as a key component in the maintenance of Ireland’s international competitiveness. The Department of Communications Marine & Natural Resources National Broadband Strategy 2003 states that
“The Government regards broadband infrastructure as the single most important economic infrastructure to the future economic development of Ireland”
The Department’s associated broadband action plan includes number of specific interventions and initiatives to stimulate broadband take-up in the Country. These interventions include regulatory issues as regards pricing together with state assisted infrastuctural schemes such as the Metropolitan Area Network Programme and the Group Broadband Scheme.
The Metropolitan Area Networks Programme seeks to construct high speed fibre-optic rings linking the key business districts in all towns in the Country with a population over 1500 in partnership with Local Authorities. These networks are then managed by a Managed Service Agency on behalf of the state and the Local Authorities providing open access to telecommunications providers at agreed rates.
Donegal County Council has long advocated the benefits of broadband as a means of assisting the Counties competitive disadvantage and providing a key tool to assist the economic and social development of the County. In fact Donegal County Council’s keen interest in this area was instrumental in the formulation of the DCMNR regional Metropolitan Area Network strategy. In the period 2002-2005 the County’s first Metropolitan Area Network was constructed in Letterkenny. Planning work on other towns was also carried out in co-operation with the Department of Marine & Natural Resources.
During 2006 and 2007 a further six Metropolitan Area Networks will be constructed at the following locations :
- Ballyshannon,
- Bundoran,
- Donegal Town,
- Ballybofey / Stranorlar,
- Carndonagh
- Buncrana.
This major construction project will be managed by the Information Systems Department. Following construction the Information Systems Department will work with the national managed services agency E-Net on an on-going basis to promote the networks locally and fast-track applications for connections to services.
At the conclusion of this project in early 2007, all towns in the county with a population over 1500 will possess fibre based open access networks servicing their advanced telecommunications needs for a considerable period of time.
Another fibre network of strategic importance to the County is the development of a cross-border link in order to provide resilence on the various networks throughout the County. An application has been approved in principle by DCMNR to construct an open access network between Letterkenny and Derry. Negotations are currently taking place with the Department to agree how best to implement this important piece of infrastructure.
Fibre based wireless broadband will transform broadband availability in the larger towns in the County. Donegal however is predominantly a rural county and it is crucial that citizens in smaller towns and in the Donegal countryside can avail of broadband services. The MAN’s programme will assist greatly in terms of providing backbone archictecture in the county which will allow the provision of fixed wireless and similar broadband services to the rural areas.
The Department of Communications Marine & Natural Resources have recognised this issue nationally and have designed the group broadband scheme which financially assists the rollout of broadband services in rural areas on the basis of joint proposals between local communities and broadband service providers together with Local Authority co-ordination. As of October 2005 a total of 7 schemes have been approved for County Donegal from the two calls for proposals to date. In the period of this strategic plan the Information Systems Department in co-operation with the Community & Enterprise Department will work with the DCMNR and local communities to further promote the take-up of the scheme in the county. A third call for proposals is likely to be issued in December 2005.
Another important rural broadband opportunity for the County is the Community Network Services project funded by Inter-Reg. Community Network Services is a voluntary cross - border organisation supported by ERNACT whose objective is to encourage the provision of broadband and related services in rural areas of the North-West of Ireland. The Information Systems Department through it’s association with ERNACT will liase with and assist this project as required over the period of this plan.