Surveying for National Broadband Plan commences near northwest Mayo town
National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the new high speed fibre broadband network under the government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP), has today announced that engineering survey works for almost 1,400 premises in the rural surrounds of the Belmullet deployment area are now underway. This area includes the rural communities of Belmullet and An Geata Mór.
In Mayo, there are approximately 37,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools.
Under the National Broadband Plan, Mayo will see an investment of €145 million 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 Mayo, where 1,373 premises in the Belmullet 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 7,140 homes, businesses, and farms in Co. Mayo that can order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband, with 1,895 connections made to the NBI network so far. National Broadband Ireland is calling on people living in Mayo 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 192,679 premises nationwide are available to order broadband, with 52,947 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 Co. Mayo.
“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 Mayo in places like Islandeady Community Centre and Clogher Community Centre.
“There are over 7,100 homes, businesses and farms ready to connect in rural areas in Co. Mayo. This includes over 2,100 premises in Ballina, over 1,500 in Carrowmore Lacken, over 2,000 in Castlebar and almost 1,800 in Newport. We would encourage people living in those areas to visit nbi.ie to see if they can place an order a high-speed connection on the NBI network.”
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.
In advance of the Fibre-to-the-Home rollout, the NBP provides for the delivery of broadband connection points (BCPs) nationwide. Some 950 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 BCPs in Mayo include Clogher Community Centre, Islandeady Community Centre and Bofeenaun Community Centre. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP.