Almost 7,000 Roscommon homes, businesses and farms in the Athlone and Longford deployment areas can avail of a high-speed connection today

Over 1,000 Roscommon homes, businesses and farms in the Athlone and Longford deployment areas will soon be ready to connect to fibre broadband on National Broadband Ireland network 

10 March 2023: 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 almost 7,000 Roscommon premises are ready to connect to the National Broadband Ireland network and over 1,000 Roscommon premises will also soon be able order or pre-order a high-speed fibre broadband connection on its network, in the Athlone and Longford deployment areas. 

In Roscommon, there are approximately 19,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools. Under the National Broadband Plan, County Roscommon will see an investment of €76M 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 6,927 premises in Roscommon that are available to order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county, with 1,618 connections already made to the network. National Broadband Ireland is calling on people to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect.

686 premises in the Athlone deployment area and a further 322 premises in the Longford deployment area that can join the National Broadband Ireland network. National Broadband Ireland is calling on people living near Athlone and Longford to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect.

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.  

Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland said: “Our teams continue to work on the rollout plan and substantial progress has been made on works in Roscommon.”

He continued: “We are confident that the rollout will continue to gather pace as our ability to move premises from the construction phase to the order phase ramps up.  We are currently working closely with retail service providers, and other stakeholders, to connect homes in Roscommon. Minimum speeds of 500Mbps will be available.

“Our mission is to end the digital divide across the country. Digital connectivity is critical to many of our activities, and this new Fibre-to-the-Home network, will be a key enabler for the sustainability of local businesses and communities.”   

Under the National Broadband Plan, 559,000 premises nationwide are included in the Intervention Area, which was established by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications to identify areas where commercial operators are not currently providing access to high-speed broadband or do not intend to. 

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 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. 574 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 Roscommon include Tulsk Digi Hub, Dangan Community Centre and Marian Hall Community Centre. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP.