Cork islands get connected

Close to 300 residents of two islands in West Cork can now avail of high-speed fibre broadband.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) has announced that residents on Sherkin and Cape Clear islands off the coast of Cork can now avail of NBI’s high-speed broadband.

In total, 280 premises across both islands can access high-speed broadband on the NBI network.

NBI CEO Peter Hendrick said: “At NBI, we are steadfast in our mission to ensure that no community is left behind.”

He added that network users on Sherkin and Cape Clear Islands will have access to the same quality, speeds, and reliability that the NBI network offers to anyone living on the mainland.

The NBI infrastructure is already live on 14 islands including Hare Island and Long Island off the coast of Cork; Turbot Island and Inishturk South Island off the coast of Galway; Inishlyre Island and Collanmore Island off the coast of Mayo; as well as Inishfree Island, Rutland Island, Eadarinis Island and Eighter Island off the coast of Donegal.

82,000 premises in county Cork are currently included in the State’s Intervention Area, which will see NBI deliver minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second to homes, businesses, farms, and schools. As the biggest investment in rural Ireland since rural electrification, Co. Cork will receive €314m of government investment under the National Broadband Plan.

Works have already been completed in other parts of Cork and there is a total of 40,345 premises that can now pre-order or order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county with 12,891 connections made so far.

The NBI website is regularly updated to show estimated connection dates. Signing up to the NBI email notifications at 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.

Residents of Sherkin and Cape Clear Islands interested in ordering broadband or finding out more information on when they will be able to connect can call the NBI contact centre on 0818-624624 or visit nbi.ie.