High-speed connectivity on the way as almost 9,000 Cork homes, farms and businesses near Clonakilty and Fermoy see build works commence

Survey works have now commenced for 250 premises on Bere Island

Over 25,600 homes, businesses and farms in Cork 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 construction has commenced to deliver high-speed broadband to almost 9,600 homes, farms and businesses in Co Cork. This includes almost 5,800 premises in the Clonakilty deployment area and over 3,800 premises in the Fermoy deployment area. These build works include the rural communities of Courtmacsherry and Rathclaren near Clonakilty as well as Rathcormac and Watergrasshill near Fermoy.  

In addition, engineering survey works are now underway on Bere Island, as it progresses towards towards high-speed fibre broadband access for almost 250 premises. 

 In Cork, there are approximately 82,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools. Under the National Broadband Plan, County Cork will see an investment of €314M 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 phases of the project, 5,795 Cork premises around Clonakilty and 3,823 premises in the Fermoy deployment area are now under construction as works to build the network has commenced. 

TJ Malone, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland Deployment said: “Our teams are working on the ground all over the country and considerable progress has been made on developments in Cork. High-speed fibre broadband is now available to order for over 6,500 premises near Templemartin, 2,300 premises around Youghal, over 4,700 in Carrigaline, over 9.500 in Midleton, almost 900 in the Tallow deployment area and over 2,100 in Rathmore. Construction works are already underway for almost 3,900 premises in the Kanturk deployment area, and we are delighted that premises in Clonakilty and Fermoy are now also moving into this phase.

“We are also pleased to be commencing engineering survey works on Bere Island. The NBI team is on the island this week to provide information to residents and I would also encourage everyone to visit nbi.ie/eoi to sign up for updates. The Sherkin and Cape Clear islands are also due to see survey works commence shortly which will mean overall broadband infrastructure is advancing for 500 Cork offshore island homes.

“Our overarching goal is to improve digital connectivity across the country. With minimum internet speed of 500Mbps, this new Fibre-to-the-Home network will play a pivotal role in sustaining local businesses and communities.”

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 Cork and there are 25,636 premises that are available to order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county, with 8,593 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.

Under the National Broadband Plan, 564,000 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 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. 955 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 nbi.ie/bcp-map/. An example of some of the locations of Broadband Connection Points in Cork include Ionadh Áise, Laharn Heritage Centre and Tureencahill Community Centre. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP.