6 November 2023
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
High speed connectivity on the way as almost 3,700 Cork homes, farms and businesses in rural areas near Skibbereen see engineering survey works begin
National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the new high speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) have announced that engineering survey works for almost 3,700 premises in the rural surrounds of the Skibbereen deployment area are now underway. This area also includes the rural communities near Baltimore and Castletownsend.
In Cork, there are approximately 82,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses, and schools. Under the National Broadband Plan, Cork will see an investment of €314M 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 Cork, where 3,651 premises in the Skibbereen 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 559,000 plus premises in the Intervention Area, as identified by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.
There are 24,638 homes, businesses, and farms in County Cork that can order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband with 7,441 connections made to the NBI network so far. National Broadband Ireland is calling on people living in Cork to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect.
National Broadband Ireland contractors have been on the ground across the country and over 196,243 premises nationwide are available to order broadband with 58,485 homes and businesses connected to the NBI network so far.
NBI Chief Executive Peter Hendrick 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 County Cork.”
“The rollout of Broadband Connection Points is also key to delivering access to high-speed internet in the Intervention Area, and we’re delighted sites are being connected right across Cork in places like Caheragh Community Hall and Coláiste Phobal Cléire.”
“There are almost 24,700 homes, businesses and farms ready to connect in rural areas in County Cork. This includes over 4,700 premises in Carrigaline, almost 9,500 in Midleton, over 2,100 in Rathmore, over 2,300 in Youghal and over 6,400 near Ballincollig and Bandon. 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 progresses 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. 952 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 https://nbi.ie/bcp-map/. An example of some of the locations of Broadband Connection Points in Cork include Caheragh Community Hall, Sherkin Island Community Hall and Lisavaird Community Centre. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP.