Author: Nicola Cooke

The first build works for the new high speed broadband network being delivered across Ireland as part of the State’s National Broadband Plan (NBP), are underway in Cavan.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) are designing, building and operating the new network in a mapped ‘rollout area’ – where commercial operators have indicated they will not be providing such services – that comprises 537,000 premises and will benefit over one million people.

In Cavan, 3,738 premises have been surveyed to date and network designs completed to deliver the new Fibre to the Home (FTTH) network there. NBI crews have started initial works for the build in townlands outside Cavan town including Ballinagh, Corlurgan, Araghan, Poles, and Caughoo, in the south of the county.

These initial works paves 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.

In Cavan, there are 16,200 premises in the “Rollout Area”, which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses and school. This equates to 38% of all premises in the county. Under the National Broadband Plan, Cavan will see an investment of €65M 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 more remote working.

Broadband Connections Points

Those living in the rollout area will be able to benefit from high speed connectivity (150Mb) at Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) in the county over the next several months. These facilities – which include GAA clubs, schools, community centres and other public facilities – will provide free access to high speed internet in the rollout area.

In Cavan, a number of schools in the rollout area will be connected for educational access as part of this initiative, while the public will be able to benefit from this service at locations across the county such as Mullahorn, Drumavaddy, Killenkere and Glengevlin community centres. Further details can be found at /bcp-map/

Local involvement

NBI are partnering on these build works in Cavan with Secto Services contractors, who are led by Killashrandra native Connor Flanagan. Secto will provide a combination of highly skilled staff and trusted contractors to deliver this project. The Secto chief executive said he was delighted to be involved in the delivery of such a critical infrastructure project for Ireland:

“I am both delighted and privileged that Secto are leading the way in this important initial work, before we start to lay the fibre in the coming months. As a Cavan man it’s just wonderful to see such a society-changing project starting out in our county, and I’ve no doubt people across all of Cavan will see major benefits in time.”

NBI Deployment Chief Executive TJ Malone, said he was looking forward to working with Secto as partners in delivery of the next stages of the rollout:

“There are 227 deployments areas across Ireland – in every county – that NBI will be delivering this new high speed broadband network in, across 96% of Ireland’s land mass. These works in Cavan represent an important marker in our five to seven year build programme, and we look forward to partnering with Secto to deliver this.”

Over 89,000 premises have already been surveyed across 20 counties in Ireland,  in the seven months since the National Broadband Plan got underway. For more information or to register for updates log onto www.nbi.ie or call 0818 624 624 (local call rate) or email contactus@nbi.ie