Irish operator Eir has confirmed its decision to withdraw from the bidding for the National Broadband Programme (NBP), leaving an Enet consortium as the sole bidder. In a statement, eir cited significant commercial issues and and complexity within the tender process and growing uncertainty around a host of pricing and regulatory issues.
Taking these problems into account, the company's board decided that the risks were too high to continue participating in the NBP tender process. Eir was shortlisted as a bidder 18 months ago. The company said it would continue working to deliver high-speed broadband across Ireland and would support the NBP programme by providing commercial access to infrastructure.
The remaining bidder for the programme is a consortium involving Enet, SSE, John Laing Group and Granahan McCourt. In a statement, the Department of Communications said this group had reaffirmed their commitment to the successful completion of the NBP process.
