INTERNET
South East broadband plan to commence
12-12-2002
by Andrew McLindon
A major broadband project for the South East will receive funds in 2003 after initial concerns that it would be shelved, but its completion will still be delayed.
The South East Regional Authority (SERA) said last week that the first phase of the SERPANT project would be delayed until 2004 due to lack of funds, raising fears that it would be abandoned altogether, but it now appears that some works will go ahead in early 2003.
However, not all of the initial funding promised to the EUR13 million initiative, which will see construction of a 100km fibre optic network in the region, will be made available next year and this will push back its completion date from mid-2003 to the second half of 2004.
Following the funding fears coming to light, Minister for Communications, Dermot Ahern, TD, dismissed reports of the project being shelved as "nonsense" and said the government was committed to spending EUR83 million between 2002 and 2004 on its regional broadband programme.
The Minister added that his Department was finalising the timetable for commencement and funding draw down with the director of SERA, and would also be shortly signing grant agreements with each local or regional authority, which would enable all of the regional projects to commence in 2003.
According to SERA director, Thomas Byrne, the organisation met with the Department of Communications this week and it was confirmed that funding would be made available for SERPANT in 2003. Byrne did not disclose how much was being offered, but confirmed it was less than what the organisation had originally sought.
As a result, said Byrne, the project's start date of 01 January 2003 has been pushed back by around a month with a "significant amount", but not all, of its works to be completed by the end of 2003. He did not detail which works would be completed next year, but said parts of the network will be built during the year. The SERA had hoped to have the project finished within six months of its start, but it now appears that it won't be fully completed until the second half of 2004
"The meeting with the Department had a satisfactory outcome given the financial allocation in 2003 for the entire country," commented Byrne.
The Department of Communications allocated EUR32 million for the Metropolitan Area Networks initiative in its 2003 Book of Estimates and this is to be spread across 19 towns, six of which are in the South East.
The six are Carlow, Clonmel, Dungarvan, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford. Preliminary work on SERPANT has already commenced in Kilkenny, Waterford and Dungarvan.
News that funding will be accessible in 2003 will come as a relief to the South East as SERPANT is considered a cornerstone of the South-East Information Society Strategy, which is aiming to make the region a leading ICT area.
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