Irish Telecom News

Dermot Ahern TD, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, and the Minister for Education and Science Mr. Noel Dempsey T.D. today issued an invitation to service providers to participate in an advance deployment of broadband services in up to 100 first and second level schools.

The call for proposals follows the Government decision to provide broadband connectivity to all schools in Ireland over the next year. The overall initiative has attracted significant direct support from the Telecommunications Industry which under the Schools Broadband Access Programme has committed €15m. A public tendering process is currently being prepared by both Departments in relation to this roll-out to some 4,100 schools and the advance deployment call announced today is a separate and distinct development.

Minister Ahern said: “Bringing broadband to every school in the country will ultimately prove one of the most significant educational developments of our time. By using it in the school youngsters will be familiar with the technology and bring it into their everyday life and their workplace when they graduate.”

Under this call providers are invited to submit a proposal to ‘showcase’ their broadband technologies in 10 schools of their choice. It is intended to allow for early identification of practical issues arising from the deployment of broadband services to schools and the development of a centrally managed schools network. This invitation extends to all broadband service providers whether participants in the Government/Industry Schools Broadband Access Programme or not. Responses to this invitation will have no bearing on and will not be taken into consideration in the evaluation of proposals received under the forthcoming public procurement process.

Providers have been requested make one proposal offering free broadband services to ten schools of their choice, subject to the agreement of those schools and the Department of Education & Science. It is envisaged that a maximum of 10 proposals covering up to 100 schools will be allowed in this regard with such services being provided by mid-September, 2004 . Full details of this invitation are available from the Department of Communication’s web-site under the Schools Broadband Access Programme and the deadline for receipt of proposals is Friday 30th July, 2004.

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