AQW 40713/11-15

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 14/01/2015
Answered On Date: 21/01/2015
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment for her assessment of the success of the BT Northern Ireland Broadband Improvement project in improving access to basic and superfast fixed-line broadband services for rural areas.

Answer:

The Northern Ireland Broadband Improvement Project is being delivered in eight phases with an overall completion date of 31 December 2015. The project is progressing according to schedule and by 31 December 2014 almost 17,500 premises across Northern Ireland had benefitted from the improvements being delivered.

By project completion, it is anticipated that improvements will have been delivered for at least 45,000 premises resulting in the provision of basic wire-line broadband services of at least 2 Megabits per second in areas that previously had no service and improvements in the availability of superfast fixed-line broadband services (24 Megabits per second or higher) in areas where choice is poor or broadband speeds are low.