18 August 2023: National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the National Broadband Plan (NBP) today (Friday) announced that over 1,700 homes, farms and business surrounding Newport are now ready to connect to high-speed fibre to gain minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second, as local business Croagh Patrick Seafood and Tours described the service as “incredibly beneficial”.
Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland said: “As the NBI rollout progresses across Mayo, connections to high-speed broadband are becoming available to rural towns and villages around the county. Alongside the 1,700 premises we have announced in Newport today, there are also over 2,100 homes, farms and business in and around Ballina are now ready to connect as well as over 2,000 in Castlebar and over 1,500 in Carrowmore Lacken.
“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 €145 million investment in Mayo and serving over 37,000 premises. I encourage Mayo 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, Padraic Gannon, of Croagh Patrick Seafood and Tours in Newport who is connected to the NBI network through broadband provider, Westnet, said: “I was delighted to be able to sign up with Westnet to connect to the NBI network. It was an essential step ahead of our new Oyster Farm Visitor Centre opening this July. In today’s society, visitors and tourists expect high speed broadband everywhere they travel, even on the shores of Clew Bay. It’s important that we meet those expectations and stay connected with our visitors.
“As a new business, we are reliant on online reviews. Having a fast, reliable broadband connection enables our visitors to post reviews on the spot. This has been incredibly beneficial to our newly built visitor centre. It’s the only way international visitors will find our remote location.”
Sarah Mulroe, Marketing Manager, Westnet, said: “Westnet is very pleased to be one of NBI’s broadband provider partners bringing high-speed broadband to customers like Padraic, with minimum speeds of 500 MB per second. With ultrafast speeds, families can browse online, stream HD videos or download music with no delays.
“We pride ourselves on providing broadband connections to each and every town and village in Mayo. We are ready and waiting to hear from any of the 1,760 Newport families and businesses which can order now and, if they choose Westnet, 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: Connected customer Padraic Gannon, Craogh Patrick Seafoods, Sarah Mulrow and Paul Cunnanne, Westnet, andRoss Shone, National Broadband Ireland.
