Fibre broadband rollout expands to West Cork
Work in one area in West Cork is set to ensure that thousands of premises there will be able to access a high-speed broadband connection very soon.
National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the new high speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) recently announced that construction has commenced to deliver high-speed broadband to 2,100 Cork premises in the Rathmore deployment area.
In Cork, there are approximately 81,000 premises in the Intervention Area, which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools. So far, 15,700 homes, businesses and farms in county can now avail of a high-speed connection.
Under the National Broadband Plan, county Cork will see an investment of €314m 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.
Having successfully completed the Survey and Design phase of the project, 2,101 Cork premises in the Rathmore deployment area are now under construction to have high-speed fibre delivered over the coming months.
National Broadband Ireland’s website is regularly updated to show estimated connection dates. Signing up to the NBI email notifications at https://nbi.ie/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.
Works have already been completed in other parts of Cork and there are 15,718 premises that are available to order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county, with 4,224 connections already made to the network.
National Broadband Ireland is asking people living near Carrigaline, Midleton and Youghal to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect.
Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland said: “Our teams continue to work on the rollout plan and substantial progress has been made from surveying, design, build to connection works.”
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 county Cork. 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.
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.