€3m broadband infrastucture built in 2009 never switched on
A Charlestown-based councillor has questioned why a critical piece of infrastructure that was built in 2009 has been lying idle.
A Charlestown-based councillor has questioned why a critical piece of infrastructure that was built in 2009 is still lying idle.
Sinn Féin Cllr Gerry Murray told last week’s meeting of the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District that a state-of-the-art broadband line, constructed with EU funding of €3m to €4m, has not been turned on for 15 years.
Cllr Murray said he was approached by the late JP Duffy of Westel Utilities Ltd in 2017, who informed him that his company built a metropolitan broadband ring at Knock Airport in 2009, but it was never switched on.
Mr Duffy told him all it would take is someone in the private sector to switch it on by installing an aerial and it would provide high-speed broadband to thousands of homes and businesses in the surrounding areas.
“I assume it’s been switched on but it just shows that it’s a Wild West in terms of private utilities," Cllr Murray told a meeting of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District. "I’m not sure who’s in charge of that metropolitan broadband ring. When JP brought me up there to show me it, people within a 10-15-mile radius of Knock Airport couldn’t get proper broadband but by attaching an aerial to the ring at the airport, people would have been able to receive high-speed broadband via a radio signal. For eight or nine years, they couldn’t find somebody in the private sector that would literally flick the switch.”
Mayo Co Council’s Head of Digital Development and Broadband, Danny O’Toole, said it was his understanding that the broadband ring still has not been switched on.
Cllr Murray said it was astonishing that this had happened.
“You have a piece of infrastructure in East Mayo that at a flick of a switch would have solved an infrastructural deficit. I spoke with the European Commission about this and they were flabbergasted that nobody had the courtesy to flick a switch,” Cllr Murray said.
Mr O’Toole said the issue only came across his desk in the last number of weeks but he would try to get to the bottom of it.
