National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the new high-speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) today announced that surveying works in several areas of Meath are well underway.

Surveying

NBI contractors have been on the ground across the country for eight months and over 158,000 premises nationwide have been surveyed to date. This involves physically walking the routes and documenting images, notes and measurements of the poles, cables and underground ducts in each area.  This will enable network design solutions for the provision of a fibre network to every premises in the Intervention Area – a map of over 544,000 premises nationwide identified by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communication (DECC) – as not being served with adequate broadband speeds.

Meath

In Meath, there are 19,592 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools. This equates to 22% of all premises in the county. Under the National Broadband Plan, Meath will see an investment of €76M in the new high-speed fibre network. This will enable e-learning, remote monitoring of livestock or equipment, e-health initiatives, better energy efficiency in the home, and facilitate increased levels of remote working.

NBI crews have made substantial progress in Meath, the following areas are being surveyed: Kilbride, Kilcloon, Clonee and Dunboyne

All NBI contractors will also carry official ID cards and essential worker letters, and have received training on adhering to all Covid 19 guidelines. They will have vehicles, PPE and signage with both their own, and NBI logos.

Broadband Connection Points (BCPs)

In advance of the fibre to the home roll out, the NBP provides for the delivery of BCPs nationwide. Over 60 of these sites are now ‘live’ and have both internal and external broadband access. These facilities – which include sports clubs, community centres and tourist sites – will provide free public access to high-speed internet in the rollout area.

These will pave the way for rural communities to receive the benefits of broadband, from mobile working, e-learning and mobile banking, to digital tourism. A full list can be found at /bcp-map/ Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP. Locations of Broadband Connection Points in county Meath will include Drumree GAA Club, Meath GAA Centre of Excellence and Boardsmill GAA Club.

Progress on the ground

NBI Chief Executive Officer Peter Hendrick commented: “We started physical work on the ground last January and despite the challenging environment caused by Covid-19, we’ve grown and mobilised the team to have over 800 people working on the project across all 26 counties and making good progress.  We are acutely aware that people want access to high-speed broadband as soon as possible, and our goal is to deliver that.

“Survey designs are an important part of mapping out how every home and business will be connected, and these will provide the blueprint for how the NBI fibre is laid. The BCPs are also a key milestone in delivering access to high-speed internet in the Intervention Area, and we’re delighted to see these being connected for access – internally and externally – right across the county.”

NBI’s website www.nbi.ie has a search tool to enable the public to check whether their premises is within the rollout area, and to show indicative dates for areas being surveyed. There is also a facility to register for updates on this. Detailed designs for the fibre area network are drawn up following these surveys. The network build has started in parts of Cavan, Cork, Galway and Limerick, and some connections are expected by the end of this year. NBI’s contact centre can be reached at 0818 624 624 (lo-call) or contactus@nbi.ie