High speed connectivity on the way as over 1,000 Wicklow homes, farms and businesses in rural areas see engineering survey works begin

Over 7,000 homes, businesses and farms in Wicklow 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 engineering survey works for over 1,000 premises in the rural surrounds of the Hollyfort deployment area are now underway. This area also includes the rural communities along the Wexford border near Carnew, Arklow and Coolboy.

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, 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.

There are 7,079 homes, businesses, and farms in County Wicklow that can order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband with 2,446 connections made to the NBI network so far. National Broadband Ireland is calling on people living in Wicklow to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect.

NBI crews have made substantial progress in Wicklow, where 1,021 premises in the Hollyfort 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 564,000 plus premises in the Intervention Area, as identified by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. 

Progress continues across Wicklow with network build works now underway throughout the county. Almost 2,500 homes and businesses are anticipated to be connected to the NBI network by the end of this year in the Enniskerry and Baltinglass deployment areas, while a further 2,000 premises near Aughrim and Tinahely are due to be connected next year. 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.

TJ Malone, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland Deployment said: “Momentum has been steadily building in the progression of the National Broadband Plan, with premises 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 Co Wicklow.

“There are over 7,000 homes, businesses and farms ready to connect in rural areas in Co Wicklow. This includes almost 3,400 premises in Redcross, 2,300 near Kilcoole, and over 1,400 near Blessington. We would encourage people living in those areas to visit nbi.ie to see if they can place an order for a high-speed connection on the NBI network.”

National Broadband Ireland contractors have been on the ground across the country and over 274,261 premises nationwide are available to order broadband with 83,518 homes and businesses connected to the NBI network so far.

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 /bcp-map/. An example of some of the locations of Broadband Connection Points in Wicklow include Ballinacor GAA Club, ABEC (Arklow Business Enterprise Centre) and Brockagh Resource Centre. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are now connected for educational access as part of the NBP.