Vol. 568 No. 2
70 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources when the management services entity tender for broadband here will be announced by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16026/03]
Notice of my Department's intention to commence the competitive tender process for the engagement of the management services entity has been forwarded to the Official Journal of the European Communities – OJEC. I expect that the OJEC notice will be published in the coming week. The invitation to tender for the management services entity will be made available to all interested parties, once notice of the process has been published in the OJEC.
The management services entity is the body which will be engaged to manage, market and maintain, on an open access basis, the telecommunications infrastructure being constructed under the regional broadband programme. The regional broadband programme aims to establish broadband availability in or near a number of urban areas, through the construction of carrier-neutral, open access, fibre optic metropolitan area networks.
