• Premises passed to exceed annual rollout target almost two months early
  • Connectivity rates of over 30 per cent within 6 months of broadband availability
  • Asterion acquires 80 per cent of NBI following Ministerial consent in October

National Broadband Ireland [NBI], the company rolling out the new national high speed fibre network under the National Broadband Plan [NBP], today issues its quarterly progress update. As at 4th November 2022 NBI is ahead of schedule in delivering its COVID-adjusted targets for the 12 month period ending 31 January 2023.

NBI is also pleased to confirm that Asterion Industrial Partners, a pan European, long term infrastructure investment manager, has completed its acquisition of an 80 per cent interest in NBI. This follows an agreement announced in July 2022 and receipt of Ministerial consent on Wednesday, 19th October 2022. 

The remaining 20 per cent of NBI will continue to be held by founding shareholders Granahan McCourt (the investment vehicle of Granahan McCourt Capital and Tetrad Corporation) and by Yakida Ltd (certain management of NBI). David McCourt will remain as Chairman of NBI, ensuring continuity of control of the day-to-day operations and the rollout of the NBP will be executed by existing NBI management.  An overview of NBI ownership and governance is available here: nbi.ie/governance-structure/  

Performance update:

By contract year end (31 January 2023), NBI is on track to deliver:

  • 102,000 premises passed – a target which was set for achievement by the end of January 2023 will be met in early December – representing a 219% increase on the 2021 number
  • 232,822 premises under construction – over 40% of the Intervention Area
 Rollout Progress  To November 2022Growth since 5th November 2021NBP target 31 Jan 2023
Build complete and available for order / pre order101,050+230%128,000
Premises Passed91,378+237%102,000
Premises built or under construction (over 40% of all premises targeted)232,822+116%221,000

Other performance indicators:

  • 23,306 connections to date with connectivity rates of 30 per cent within 6 months of availability
  • Over 359,000 (64%) premises have been surveyed, of which, over 340,000 (60%) are designed or are in detailed design
  • 760 high speed Broadband Connection Points are now available, including 484 schools 
  • Speeds and future proofing: Every NBI fibre connection is capable of delivering up to 10Gbps speeds on day one, with initial speeds on offer of 500Mbps, 1Gbps and 2Gbps

Commenting, David McCourt, Chairman of National Broadband Ireland, said: “It has been a very productive quarter for NBI. We are very pleased to see continuing month on month momentum on project roll out and to have secured a new long-term investment partner in the form of Asterion.  As a specialist investor in European telecoms infrastructure, Asterion’s investment and backing is a significant endorsement of the project which is now progressing at pace.”

Commenting, Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive of National Broadband Ireland, said: “Project rollout is gaining ground and we now expect to finish the current contract year comfortably ahead of COVID adjusted targets set by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, with over 40% of the Intervention Area under construction and 102,000 homes, farms and business passed.  We are also pleased to report that take-up where the deployment is live for six months or more is exceeding 30% and reaching 40% in some areas where the network has been live for longer.”