Over 4,200 Sligo homes, farms and business can connect to high-speed broadband now

18 August 2023: National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the National Broadband Plan (NBP) today (Friday) announced that almost 500 homes, farms and business in the Corballa areas are now ready to connect to high-speed fibre to gain minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second, as the owner of Muddy Burns Bar said the service has helped the business “go from strength to strength”.

Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland said: As the NBI rollout progresses across Sligo, connections to high-speed broadband are becoming available to rural towns and villages around the county. Alongside these 500 premises in west Sligo today, there are also 2,400 homes, farms and business in and around Sligo Town which are now ready to connect as well as 1,300 in the Cashelgarran area.

“The significant progress we are making means that more and more customers are experiencing the transformational power of minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second whether you are a family needing to work, study and access entertainment online all at the same time, or a business owner wanting to expand.

“Overall NBI, will be making a €59 million investment in Sligo, serving 15,000 premises. I encourage Sligo residents to visit nbi.ie and check their Eircode to find out if they are ready to connect and sign up for updates.”

Local business owner, Mark Carr, of Muddy Burns Bar and Restaurant in Corballa, who is connected to the NBI network through broadband provider, Atlantek, said: “I was delighted to be able to sign up with Atlantek to connect to the NBI network. I’ve been an Atlantek customer for the past 25 years and was thrilled to be able to upgrade to high-speed fibre broadband. Since connecting to the NBI network, I’ve noticed that our connection is much more efficient. We haven’t had any issues at all.

“Having fibre broadband has really helped our business go from strength to strength. Now with a fast, reliable connection, our online booking system runs seamlessly, and we can offer broadband to customers without it freezing or buffering. 70 to 80% of our customers pay by card only. It’s absolute mayhem without a reliable connection and card machine. Nobody has cash these days. It’s so important for us to have a constant connection to keep our business up and running. Now we don’t have to worry.”

Alan McGrath, Managing Director and Owner, of broadband provider, Atlantek, said: “Atlantek is very pleased to be one of NBI’s broadband provider partners bringing high-speed broadband to customers like Mark, with minimum speeds of 500 MB per second.

“We pride ourselves on delivering an excellent product and service to local communities. Since 1997, we have strived to bring reliable broadband to homes and businesses across Sligo. We offer a range of packages at a reasonable price to suit everyone. We are ready and waiting to hear from any families and businesses in Corballa and the surrounding areas which can order now, and if they choose Atlantek, we 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.

Photo caption: Alan McGrath, Atlantek, connected customer Mark Carr, Muddy Burns Bar, andRoss Shone, National Broadband Ireland.