Rollout now over a third of the way complete in Kerry with over 11,000 homes and businesses ready to connect 

Local wedding planning business is the latest premise to be connected

National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company delivering the new future-proofed, high-speed Fibre-to-the-Home network under the National Broadband Plan (NBP) on behalf of the Government, has announced that premises in the Ballyheigue Deployment Area have been successfully connected. There are almost 1,500 premises that can now order or pre-order a high-speed connection in the Ballyheigue Deployment Area, which covers the Dingle Peninsula.

Up to 28,000 premises in County Kerry are included in the State’s Intervention Area, which will see NBI deliver minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second to homes, businesses, farms and schools. As the biggest investment in rural Ireland since rural electrification, the County will receive €107 million of Government investment under the NBP. 

Over a third of all premises in the Kerry intervention area are now able to connect to high-speed fibre on the National Broadband Ireland network.

Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer of National Broadband Ireland, said: “National Broadband Ireland is delighted to announce that over 1,500 premises in the Ballyheigue area are ready to connect to high-speed broadband on our network. 

“We are calling on residents in the Ballyheigue deployment area to visit nbi.ie to check their Eircode to see if they can connect today. It is our goal to give homes and businesses throughout Ireland the opportunity to experience the life-changing benefits that high-speed broadband provides. We understand the role that high-speed broadband now plays in everyday lives and want to give the people of Ireland every opportunity to avail of it.

“Since the pandemic, there has been an increase in the amount of people looking to work and interact remotely.  That is why, for businesses like Peach Perfect Weddings, having a high-speed connection is vital.”

Waldemar and Yana, who run Peach Perfect Weddings,  one of the first customers in the Ballyheigue Deployment Area to be connected to the NBI network said: “Our business, Peach Perfect Weddings organises events across eight countries in Europe. We set the business up as a fully remote-based business from the very beginning, and so when we were considering where to settle in rural Kerry, having a reliable fast internet connection was essential to us. Back then, there was only 4G mobile connection, but we knew about National Broadband Ireland and that at some point we would get super-fast fibre broadband.

Before we got the super-fast fibre broadband, we somehow managed to run our business via 4G connection, but it was unreliable. Due to this, in bad weather, we had to take a day off as we could not operate our business. Being a wedding agency, we often have to transfer hundreds of high-quality photos from the 100+ weddings we organise annually. On mobile internet, it was taking hours, so we usually had to download or upload these photos over night. Since getting connected, it takes just minutes. We can also finally have video calls with our wedding planners who are based all over Europe. General webpage browsing now loads instantly, without any delay and of course, being able to stream movies in high quality is also a nice bonus!”

Kevin Kelly, Business Development Manager at Ivertec Broadband – the Retail Service Provider selling services on the new fibre network in the area – commented: ““Ivertec customers are delighted to work with NBI on this project to provide Peach Perfect Weddings with Gigabit fibre broadband as part of the National Broadband Plan. In today’s world, having access to a high-speed broadband connection is extremely important and working with a trusted broadband partner helps to ease the pressure of getting connected. 

“Customers throughout Ireland are availing of the benefits that high-speed fibre broadband can provide and it is great to see the Ballyheigue area now join this connection. Ivertec is proud to be an official retail partner of NBI and we are excited to collaborate with NBI again on future projects throughout Co. Kerry.”

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 NBI network and 51 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 NBI™ network, visit NBI.ie/buy   

NBI contractors have been on the ground since January 2020 surveying townlands across the county. This involves physically walking the routes and documenting images, notes and measurements of the poles, cables and underground ducts in each area, and enables design solutions for the provision of the fibre network.  

Under the National Broadband Plan, 569,000 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.   

Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) 

In advance of the Fibre-to-the-Home rollout, the NBP provides for the delivery of Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) nationwide. 574 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 /bcp-map/. An example of some of the locations of Broadband Connection Points in Kerry include the Kilmoyley Community Centre, Valentia Transatlantic Cable Station, and Chapeltown Community Centre. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP. 

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. 

Photo caption: Pictured Waldemar, who runs Peach Perfect Weddings, one of the first customers in the Ballyheigue Deployment Area to be connected to the NBI network, Niamh Hogg, Marketing Manager at National Broadband Ireland and Kevin Kelly, Business Development Manager at Ivertec Broadband. Photo credit: Domnick Walsh.