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ismailhossen (25)in #politics • 7 years ago

The Department of Communications is to provide an update on the National Broadband Plan (NBP) later this afternoon amid reports that Eir has withdrawn from the tendering process.

Minister for Communications Denis Naughten is expected to outline the latest developments and any implications for the process.

A spokesperson for Eir declined to comment on the reports.

If Eir does confirm its exit from the process, it would leave Enet as the only other consortium involved in the tender.

A spokesperson for Enet also declined to state what the current situation is.

The withdrawal of the country's largest telecom provider would throw the process into crisis.

Last April, the Government concluded an agreement with Eir that saw 300,000 premises in rural areas taken out of the NBP intervention area.

Instead, Eir will connect the homes and businesses to high speed broadband before the end of this year.

That deal left 540,000 premises to be connected by the NBP.

Last September, another bidder SIRO, a joint venture between the ESB and Vodafone, also pulled out of the tendering process.

A majority stake in Eir was bought by a consortium led by French telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel in December.

Mr Niel's NJJ Telecom Europe and French telecommunications company Iliad, did not disclose what they paid for the stake, but said the deal put Eir's enterprise value at around €3.5 billion.