Fibre broadband roll-out expands in Banagher and Croghan areas
National Broadband Ireland said the roll-out of the country's new high-speed fibre broadband network is continuing, with construction works now underway that will extend the network to almost 2,000 homes, farms and businesses in Offaly.
These build works will cover Croghan and Daingean, near the Tyrellspass deployment area, and Ferbane, near the Banagher deployment area.
National Broadband Ireland (NBI), which is delivering the fibre broadband network under the Government's National Broadband Plan, said there were approximately 13,000 premises in its 'intervention area' in Offaly, with these including homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools.
Under the National Broadband Plan, Offaly is due to see an investment of €48 million in the new high-speed fibre network which will enable e-learning, remote monitoring of livestock or equipment, e-health initiatives, better energy efficiency in the home, and remote working.
In the Birr deployment area, NBI said 1,908 premises had now completed the engineering survey works phase and would shortly move into the network build phase of the project.
These 1,908 premises in the Birr deployment area include premises in rural communities surrounding the town of Birr.
Having already gone through the survey and design phase of the project, 1,458 Offaly premises in the Banagher deployment area are now under construction, as well as 529 premises in the Tyrellspass deployment area.
"Our teams are working on the ground all over the country and considerable progress has been made on the rollout in Offaly," said TJ Malone, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland Deployment.
"High-speed fibre broadband is now available to order for almost 1,700 premises across Offaly including over 1,300 in the south of the county which are in our Roscrea deployment area.
"We are pleased to commence construction on a further 2,000 homes, businesses and farms around the Banagher and Tyrellspass deployment areas, while over 1,900 premises in the Birr deployment area have now completed the engineering survey works phase.
"Construction works are underway for almost 1,200 premises in the Moate deployment area and these are expected to be connected to the NBI network between by autumn of this year.
"We are strongly encouraging Offaly residents to visit www.nbi.ie/eoi/ to check their Eircode and sign up for updates," he added.
"Our overarching goal is to improve digital connectivity across the country.
"With minimum internet speed of 500Mbps, this new Fibre-to-the-Home network will play a pivotal role in sustaining local businesses and communities," Mr Malone concluded.