High-speed connectivity on the way as almost 1,800 Wicklow homes, farms and businesses near the Baltinglass area see build works commence

Almost 1,400 homes, businesses and farms in Wicklow can avail of a high-speed connection today

18 August 2023: 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 construction has commenced to deliver high-speed broadband to almost 3,000 premises in the rural areas surrounding the Baltinglass deployment area in County Wicklow. This includes villages and townlands such as Dunlavin, Stratford and Tuckmill.

In Wicklow, there are approximately 16,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools. Under the National Broadband Plan, County Wicklow will see an investment of €59M 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.

Having successfully completed the Survey and Design phase of the project, 1,820 Wicklow premises in the Baltinglass deployment are now under construction to have high-speed fibre. Homes, businesses and farms in these areas will be ready to connect to the National Broadband Network.

National Broadband Ireland’s 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.

Works have already been completed in other parts of Wicklow and there are 6,798 premises that are available to order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county, with 1,368 already connected 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: “Our teams are working tirelessly on the rollout plan and considerable progress has been made on the developments in Wicklow.”

He continued: “As the fast pace of the rollout continues, we are confident in our expertise to progress premises from the construction phase to the order phase. We are currently partnering with retail service providers, and other stakeholders, to connect homes in Wicklow. Minimum speeds of 500Mbps will be available.

“Our goal is to improve digital connectivity across the country. Digital connectivity has become a huge part of our everyday lives, and this new Fibre-to-the-Home network, will be a key enabler for the sustainability of local businesses and communities.

“There are over 7,000 Wicklow premises ready to connect in rural areas, including rural areas near Blessington, Kilcoole and Redcross. 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.”

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 Wicklow include Ballinacor GAA Club, Ballycooge Community Hall and Wicklow GAA Centre of Excellence. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP.