Over 2,600 Dundalk homes, farms and business can connect to high speed broadband now

National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the new high-speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) is making an investment of almost €10 million to ensure access for over 2,600 rural Dundalk homes, farms and businesses. The company was in town this week to meet with local man Cian Duffy who is connected to the NBI network which has made working from home much easier.

Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland said: “The rollout of the NBI network is showing real momentum and over half the network is now either built or under construction. The take-up of high-speed broadband on our network has been fantastic and we’re keen to continue to accelerate our rollout and bring the benefit of high-speed fibre broadband to more and more homes, businesses and farms.

“In Louth we will connect 9,000 premises overall and over half of those are already ready to connect now, with over 2,600 in the rural areas surrounding Dundalk and over 1,500 in rural areas around Drogheda. Next to come will be the villages and townlands near Carlingford with connections becoming available in the coming months. I encourage people to visit the NBI website, nbi.ie, where they can check their Eircode and sign up for updates.”

Local Dundalk man, Cian Duffy who is connected to the NBI network through broadband provider, Blacknight, said: “I was delighted to be able to sign up with Blacknight to connect to the NBI network and I now have broadband speeds many, many times faster than what we had before. This makes working from home so much easier with a really reliable service. 

My family’s experience with the new fibre broadband has been fantastic. We can stream, game and work as we please without any issue. It has made a real difference to the whole house, there’s no longer any interruptions when we’re online and most importantly, there’s no arguments!”

Roger Brennan of broadband provider, Blacknight, said: “Blacknight is very pleased to be one of NBI’s broadband provider partners allowing us to deliver unbeatable connectivity to customers like Cian, with minimum speeds of 500 MB per second. This is a game changer for homes and businesses right across the country, no matter how remote their location.

“We pride ourselves on offering excellent customer service and a flexible range of packages at the right price. We are ready and waiting to hear from any of the 2,600 Dundalk families and businesses which can order now and, if they choose Blacknight, look forward to making connecting as easy as possible.”

Under the National Broadband Plan, 569,000 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 or intending to provide access to high-speed broadband. 

As a wholesale network operator, NBI does not sell fibre broadband directly to end users, rather it enables services from a range of broadband providers or Retail Service Providers (RSPs). As a wholesale provider, NBI will make the new Fibre-to-the-Home network available to all RSPs operating in the Intervention Area.   

Some 62 RSPs have already signed up to sell services on the National Broadband Ireland network and 51 are certified as ready to start providing connections as of today. To see the retail broadband providers that are currently licensed to sell on the National Broadband Ireland network, visit NBI.ie/buy.

National Broadband Ireland will ultimately connect 1.1 million people in every county, 65,000 farms, 44,000 small businesses and 679 schools.