Over 3,300 Ballinasloe homes, farms and business can connect to high speed broadband now

28 July 2023: 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 €12 million to ensure access for over 3,300 rural Ballinasloe homes, farms and businesses. The company was in town this week to meet with local man Damien Loughnane 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 Galway we will connect 40,000 premises overall and over a third of those are ready to connect now, including 10,000 homes, businesses and farms in the rural surrounds of Ballinasloe, Loughrea, Athenry and Gort. I encourage people to visit the NBI website, nbi.ie, where they can check their Eircode and sign up for updates.”

Local Ballinalsoe man, Damien Loughnane who is connected to the NBI network through broadband provider, Sky, said: “I was delighted to be able to sign up with Sky to connect to the NBI network and we now have broadband speeds many, many times faster than what we had before. It’s been transformative for our family, allowing both my wife and I to work remotely during the week. We’ve been able to organise our days in the office to mean that at least one of us is always able to be home with the kids, which obviously has a huge impact on things like childcare and our own work-life balance.

“Beyond our jobs, there’s been other great benefits to the new connection as well. Everyone in the house can all be online at the same time, watching TV, playing games, studying or working, which is a massive bonus.”

JD Buckley, CEO, Sky Ireland said: “Sky is delighted to be one of NBI’s broadband provider partners bringing high-speed fibre broadband to customers like Damien, giving households the power to do more at home with high quality, ultrafast speeds”

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.