High speed connectivity on the way as over 650 Roscommon homes, farms and businesses in rural areas near Cloonfad see engineering survey works begin 

Over 17,000 homes, businesses and farms in Roscommon can avail of a high-speed connection today 

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 engineering survey works for over 650 premises in the rural surrounds of the Cloonfad deployment area are now underway. This area also includes the rural areas and townlands of Ballinlough and Kiltullagh. 

  

In Roscommon, there are approximately 19,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses, and schools. Under the National Broadband Plan, Roscommon 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 Roscommon, where 658 premises in the Cloonfad deployment area have recently begun surveying work. These initial works pave the way for the next stage of deploying fibre on poles/ducts and includes the erection of poles, unblocking of ducts, and the insertion of sub duct into existing ducts, for the fibre to be installed. 

These vital survey works enable “Fibre -to-the-Home” network designs to be completed for each of the 564,000 plus premises in the Intervention Area, as identified by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.  

Works have already been completed in other parts of Roscommon, such as the rural surrounds of Athlone and Castlerea. There is a total of 17,038 premises that can now order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county, with 4,744 premises already connected to the network. NBI is calling on people to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect. 

NBI has now passed over 350,000 homes, farms and businesses in rural Ireland to high-speed broadband with over 120,000 now connected. The average take-up rate of 33% is well ahead of projections and international comparisons and surpasses 50% in areas of the country where the network has been live for 18 months. 

  

TJ Malone, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland Deployment said: “Momentum has been steadily building in the progression of the National Broadband Plan rollout, with homes across the country being connected to high-speed broadband. Our teams continue to work on the rollout plan and steady progress has been made from surveying, design, build to connection works in Co Roscommon.  

“There are over 17,000 homes, businesses and farms ready to connect in rural areas in Co Roscommon. This includes almost 800 premises near Athlone, over 3,700 near Castlerea and almost 3,600 premises in the rural surrounds of Roscommon town. We would encourage people living in those areas to visit nbi.ie to see if they can place an order for a high-speed connection on the NBI™ network.” 

  

Keep up to Speed!   

NBI is encouraging people to check their eligibility and register for updates at www.nbi.ie to receive regular notifications related to their own premises as works progress in their area.   

Broadband Connection Points 

In advance of the Fibre-to-the-Home rollout, the NBP provides for the delivery of Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) nationwide. 955 of these sites, including Public BCPs, are now ‘live’. Public BCPs – which include sports clubs, community centres and tourist sites – will provide free public access to high-speed internet in the rollout area. Other BCP categories include schools and marts. 

BCPs will pave the way for rural communities to receive the benefits of broadband, from mobile working, e-learning and mobile banking, to digital tourism. You can view BCPs at www.nbi.ie/bcp-map/. An example of some of the locations of Broadband Connection Points in Roscommon include Tulsk Digi Hub, Creeve Community Centre and Marian Hall Community Centre. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are now connected for educational access as part of the NBP.