Most Dublin residents already have to pay for broadband internet access in their homes, and now it seems they will have to meet the cost in part of the proposed fibre rollout.

The Digital Masterplan for Dublin, which is a new plan to prepare Dublin for the digital future, aims to provide superfast fibre-powered broadband to all homes in the city by Easter 2016.

However, there is a catch.

Until now a key challenge with the deployment of fibre-powered broadband has been what is known as the “last mile” - the cost of the infrastructural work with getting the fibre over the final part of the journey from the shared local supply point to the home.

The telco industry estimates that there is an average unit cost of €1,500 per dwelling involved in delivering this “last mile”.

The solution?

Get residential dwelling owners to co-invest with the state on a 50:50 basis to deliver the last mile. Homeowners in the city will thus have to reach into their own pocket to get the fibre from the supply point to their house.