High speed connectivity on the way as almost 2,100 Waterford homes, farms and businesses in rural areas near Dungarvan see engineering survey works begin

Over 300 homes, businesses and farms in rural areas surrounding Killaloe will soon be ready to connect to fibre broadband on the National Broadband Ireland network

Over 5,200 premises in County Clare can avail of a high-speed connection today

National Broadband Ireland, the company delivering the new future-proofed, high-speed Fibre-to-the-Home network under the National Broadband Plan on behalf of the Government, has announced that engineering survey works for over 300 properties in the rural surrounds of O’Briensbridge are now underway.

23,000 premises in County Clare 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, County Clare will receive €89M of Government investment under the National Broadband Plan. 

NBI crews have made substantial progress in Waterford, where 2,082 premises in the Dungarvan deployment area have recently begun surveying work. These initial works pave the way for the next stage of deploying fibre on poles/ducts and includes the erection of poles, unblocking of ducts, and the insertion of sub duct into existing ducts, for the fibre to be installed. 

These vital survey works enable “Fibre -to-the-Home” network designs to be completed for each of the 559,000 plus premises in the Intervention Area, as identified by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. 

Works have already been completed in other parts of Clare and there are a total of 5,252 premises that are available to pre-order or order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county with 1,844 connections made so far. 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: “Momentum has been steadily building in the progression of the National Broadband Plan rollout, with homes across the country being connected to high-speed broadband. Our teams continue to work on the rollout plan and steady progress has been made from surveying, design, build to connection works in County Clare.

“There are over 5,000 Clare premises ready to connect in rural areas just north of Limerick City near areas such as Cratloe, Sixmilebridge and Tulla. We would encourage people living in those areas to visit nbi.ie to see if they can place an order a high-speed connection on the NBI network.”

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 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 National Broadband Ireland network, visit NBI.ie/buy.

National Broadband Ireland contractors have been on the ground across the country and over 177,412 premises nationwide can order or pre-order broadband on the NBI network so far.

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.  

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 Clare include Obair Family Centre, Cree Community Centre and Loughraney Kids Playschool. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP.