High speed connectivity on the way as almost 2,900 Meath homes, farms and businesses in rural areas near Dunshaughlin see engineering survey works begin

Over 3,400 homes, businesses and farms in Meath 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 engineering survey works for almost 2,900 premises in the rural surrounds of the Dunshaughlin deployment area are now underway. This area includes the rural surrounds of Dunshaughlin, Ratoath, Kilbrew and Kilmore.

In Meath, there are approximately 22,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses, and schools. Under the National Broadband Plan, Meath will see an investment of €76M 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.

NBI crews have made substantial progress in Meath, where 2,881 premises in the Dunshaughlin deployment area have recently begun surveying work, which covers townlands and rural areas near Navan. 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. 

There are 3,410 homes, businesses, and farms in County Meath that can order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband with 753 connections made to the NBI network so far. National Broadband Ireland is calling on people living in Meath to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect.

National Broadband Ireland contractors have been on the ground across the country and over 166,626 premises nationwide are available to order broadband with 49,250 homes and businesses connected to the NBI network so far.

NBI Chief Executive Peter Hendrick 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 Meath.”  

“Survey and designs are an important part of mapping out how every home, farm and business will be connected, and they provide the blueprint for how the NBI fibre is laid. The BCPs are also a key milestone in delivering access to high-speed internet in the Intervention Area, and we’re delighted to see these being connected for access – internally and externally – right across Meath.”

“There are 3,400 Meath premises ready to connect in rural areas, including surrounding areas of Slane, Athboy and Stamullen. 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.”

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 /bcp-map/. An example of some of the locations of Broadband Connection Points in Meath include Meath GAA Centre of Excellence, Rathkenny Hall and Carnaross Mart. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP.