National Broadband Ireland (NBI) confirmed today (Tuesday, September 5), that it has now connected 50,000 homes, farms and businesses.
On location at a farm in Co. Cork the chief executive, (CEO) off NBI, Peter Hendrick, announced that high speed fibre connections are now available to over 180,000 premises across the country.
According to NBI, the figure for connected premises has doubled in the last nine months.
Chief executive officer (CEO) of NBI Peter Hendrick said: “We’re hearing back from connected customers that minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second are transformational, for businesses looking to expand and diversify, and for families accessing multiple devices online at the same time.”
He said that in Co. Cork one quarter of the rollout is now complete, with almost 22,000 premises ready to connect.
Hendrick added that he is encouraging residents to visit the NBI website and check whether their premise is ready.
Broadband in rural Ireland
The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the largest infrastructural project in rural Ireland since rural electrification, spanning 96% of Ireland’s land mass.
It plans to bring high speed broadband to 23% of Ireland’s population.
One woman from Knocknagree, Co. Cork, Noreen O’Connor who is connected to the NBI network said the connection “truly” made her family’s life better.
Noreen lives on a small farm, where she needs broadband for things like calving cameras, to registering and tagging animals, to applying for online grants.
She said since the pandemic, most of the marts have moved to a hybrid approach.
Her most local mart only takes place online now at night.
“Without a reliable connection, we wouldn’t have access at all,” Noreen said.
Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement, eGovernment and Circular Economy, Ossian Smyth said:
“The National Broadband Plan has seen a much higher take up rate from Irish people than we had originally forecast. Because of that, we are now ahead of our original targets for the second year. “