David McCourt with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at a Science Foundation of Ireland event in New York, March 2018
Yesterday.
Via The Sunday Business Post:
In a highly critical report into the National Broadband Plan (NBP) seen by The Sunday Business Post, members of the cross-party Oireachtas Communications Committee warned that public money would be used to subsidise its roll-out in areas where it wasn’t needed.
The report, which will be published on Tuesday, found that the procurement process run by the Department of Communications was “overly complex, restrictive, redundant and unfit for purpose”, despite being well intentioned.
It said the terms of the tender were too narrow and excluded “other viable options”.
A government source disputed the findings and said that if the recommendations were followed it would add a further siginificant delay to the project.
Broadband plan is waste of taxpayers’ money, says report (Peter O’Dwyer, The Sunday Business Post)
Previously: Still Loading
This is happening, early next year: https://thenextweb.com/podium/2019/08/24/bezos-and-musks-satellite-internet-could-save-americans-30b-a-year/
If FG push ahead with this corruptly tenedered, ludicrously priced and already obsolete broadband plan, there should, and will be, uproar.
This is the membership of the Oireachtas communications committee. Every single FG voted AGAINST the report and its conclusions [we’ll find out tomorrow if Michael Lowry did vote against as well, but it’s a fair bet he did]. All the other members voted for the report and its conclusions. FG, ladies and gentlemen. Meanwhile Denis O’Brien’s best quality bonds in Digicel are trading at 42c in the dollar, if you hurry, you can lock in to an annual return (yield) of 42%. Money in the bank (as long as Denis doesn’t default, and with the €5bn National Broadband Plan, he’ll be in clover.
Deputies
Timmy Dooley
Fianna Fáil
James Lawless
Fianna Fáil
Michael Lowry
Independent
Hildegarde Naughton – Chair
Fine Gael
Eamon Ryan
Green Party
Bríd Smith
Solidarity – People Before Profit
Brian Stanley
Sinn Féin
Senators
Terry Leyden
Fianna Fáil
Tim Lombard
Fine Gael
Michael McDowell
Independent
Joe O’Reilly
Fine Gael
Isn’t it amazing the second biggest telecoms company in the country, BT Ireland is worth just €300m according to a tweet from Sky business correspondent
https://twitter.com/MarkKleinmanSky/status/1164641630172995585
A company with the expertise and ability to connect 540,000 homes and premises.
Yet we’re about to give a €5 (five) billion contract to a consortium led by a Boston private equity business which features Denis O’Brien’s Siteserv.
It doesn’t add up. It’s daylight robbery.
This is a waste of money.
Note:
I live in a rural area with no broadband bar unreliable fluctuating LTE.
I still think it’s a waste of money