Almost 1,600 homes, businesses and farms near Drogheda are ready to connect to fibre broadband on National Broadband Ireland network today

Over 4,100 homes, businesses and farms in Louth can avail of a high-speed connection today

National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the new high speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) today announced that almost 1,600 premises in the Drogheda deployment area can now order or pre-order a high-speed fibre broadband connection on its network. 

In Louth, there are approximately 9,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses, and schools. Under the National Broadband Plan, County Louth will see an investment of €33M in the new high speed fibre network. This will enable e-learning, remote monitoring of livestock or equipment, e-health initiatives, better energy efficiency in the home, and facilitate increased levels of remote working. 

There are 1,567 Louth homes, businesses and farms located in the Drogheda deployment area that can join the National Broadband Ireland network. Works have already been completed in other parts of Louth and there are 4,111 premises that are available to order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county, with 1,290 connections already made to the network. National Broadband Ireland is calling on people to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect.

Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland said: “We are delighted to announce that premises in the Drogheda deployment area of Louth can now order or pre-order broadband services through the National Broadband Ireland network. This will enable users to experience the life-changing benefits that high-speed broadband provides.”

As a wholesale network operator, NBI does not sell fibre broadband directly to end users, rather it enables services from a range of broadband providers or Retail Service Providers (RSPs). As a wholesale provider, NBI will make the new Fibre-to-the-Home network available to all RSPs operating in the Intervention Area.   

Some 62 RSPs have already signed up to sell services on the National Broadband Ireland network and 50 are certified as ready to start providing connections as of today. To see the retail broadband providers that are currently licensed to sell on the National Broadband Ireland network, visit NBI.ie/buy.

The National Broadband Ireland website is regularly updated to show estimated connection dates. Signing up to the NBI email notifications at /eoi/ is the easiest way to get the most up to date status of premises during the rollout and when premises will be ready for order.

Under the National Broadband Plan, 559,000 premises nationwide are included in the Intervention Area, which was established by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications to identify areas where commercial operators are not currently providing access to high-speed broadband or do not intend to. 

Keep up to Speed!  

NBI is encouraging people to check their eligibility and register for updates at www.nbi.ie to receive regular notifications related to their own premises as works progresses in their area.  

Broadband Connection Points

In advance of the Fibre-to-the-Home rollout, the NBP provides for the delivery of Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) nationwide. 602 of these sites, including Public BCPs, are now ‘live’. Public BCPs – which include sports clubs, community centres and tourist sites – will provide free public access to high-speed internet in the rollout area. Other BCP categories include schools and marts.

BCPs will pave the way for rural communities to receive the benefits of broadband, from mobile working, e-learning and mobile banking, to digital tourism. You can view BCPs at www.nbi.ie/bcp-map/. An example of some of the locations of Broadband Connection Points in Louth include the Roche Emmets GAA Club, Stephenstown Pond Nature Park, and the Clogherhead Pier. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP.