High speed connectivity on the way as over 4,100 Mayo homes, farms and businesses in rural areas near Ballyhaunis and Knockmore see engineering survey works begin 

Over 15,000 homes, businesses and farms in Mayo 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 4,100 Mayo premises are now underway.  

This includes almost 1,700 premises in the Cloonfad deployment area near Ballyhaunis and Bekan and almost 2,500 premises in the Knockmore deployment area, covering the rural areas and townlands of Attymass and Mount Falcon. 

In Mayo, there are approximately 37,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses, and schools. Under the National Broadband Plan, Mayo will see an investment of €145m 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 Mayo, where 1,664 premises in the Cloonfad deployment area and 2,460 premises in the Knockmore 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. 

Network build works are also continuing across Mayo with build works in progress for over 2,000 premises near the Belmullet deployment area, due to be connected by the end of this year. 

Works have already been completed in other parts of Mayo, such as the rural surrounds of Castlebar and Newport. There is a total of 15,156 premises that can now order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county, with 3,773 premises already connected to the network. NBI is calling on people to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect. 

NBI has now passed over 367,000 homes, farms and businesses in rural Ireland to high-speed broadband with over 130,000 now connected. The average take-up rate of 35% is well ahead of projections and international comparisons and surpasses 50% in areas of the country where the network has been live for 18 months. 

  

TJ Malone, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland Deployment 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 Co Mayo.  

“There are over 15,000 homes, businesses and farms ready to connect in rural areas in Co Mayo. This includes almost 2,100 near Castlebar, almost 1,800 near Newport and over 2,000 near Liscarney. We would encourage people living in those areas to visit nbi.ie to check their Eircode and place an order for 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 progress 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 www.nbi.ie/bcp-map/. An example of some of the locations of Broadband Connection Points in Mayo include Islandeady Community Centre, CLG Béal An Mhuirthead and Turlough Community Centre. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are now connected for educational access as part of the NBP.