Author: By Nicola Cooke

Since January NBI contractors have now surveyed almost 40,000 premises in the counties of Cork, Galway, Limerick, Cavan, Wexford, and Westmeath  – and are on the ground in Kerry, Wicklow, Kildare, Roscommon and Monaghan. Soon surveying teams will move in into Tipperary and Louth. That’s a footprint in half of the 26 counties in Ireland, within six months!

Carrigaline, in Co Cork was our first area where nearly 4,500 premises were surveyed in outlying townlands. Fibre to the home network build is expected to commence there late this summer.

Early surveying in Galway included areas such as Oranmore, Clarinbridge, Claregalway & Furbo and this involved over 3,500 premises. In Limerick, 3425 premises were surveyed in outlying parts of the city, including Killalee, Caherline and Ballynanty and another 3420 in Cavan in areas around Belturbet, Killashandra and Butler’s Bridge. Works underway in south Roscommon are also taking in parts of east Galway around Ballinasloe.

Areas in Wexford which were surveyed included Oilgate, Castlebridge and Barntown among others, while in Kerry surveyors were in the Tralee area in places such as, Abbeydorney, Firies, Castlemaine and Ardfert, and outside Killarney. Townlands being surveyed in Roscommon include Athleague, Castlecoote, Kilroosky. In Monaghan, surveyors will be in Cornacassa, Cortolvin, Ballybay, and Stranooden for example.

Contractors

4Site, Actavo and Entegro are the contracting companies undertaking this work and they have vehicles and signage with their own and/or NBI logos. Employees also wear hard hats and high visibility vests featuring the NBI logo. All contractors will also carry official ID cards and are complying with -and trained in – all social distancing & HSE/HSA Covid19 work guide-lines.

BCPs

The Broadband Connection Point project (facilities such as GAA halls and community centres in the Intervention Area with free public access to high speed internet) is well underway – with almost 250 of 300 surveyed to date – and  plans to open the first of these in August/September.

Enabling facilities such as the BCPs at the earliest opportunity is important, particularly given the benefit they can provide for remote working, educational and other purposes. Work on BCPs is continuing in line with the advice provided by Government and the HSE.

Stakeholders

NBI continue to work with stakeholder including local authorities, the Gardaí, and community representative groups. We have presented to a quarter of all county councils nationwide re the roll-out & resumed that remotely this week (June 23rd). Retail Service Providers (RSPs) are a key stakeholder and technical workshops & industry forums remain ongoing remotely.

Nokia have just announced as key supplier of active equipment for the roll-out and it is expected that the first RSPs to sign up for services on the NBI network will also be announced imminently. For queries email: contactus@nbi.ie or lo call 0818 624 624