More than 200,000 homes and businesses can access NBI’s high-speed fibre network

National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company responsible for delivering the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP), will announce in its quarterly update this week that broadband connections are available for more than 200,000 households, farms and businesses across the country.

The major milestone means that well over a third of the premises targeted by the NBP have access to the high-speed fibre infrastructure, while three in five have now moved to or through the construction phase.

Sixty thousand premises have connected with the average take-up rate well ahead of projections and international comparisons and reaching above 40% in areas where the NBI network has been live for longer than twelve months.

Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer of National Broadband Ireland, said: “High-speed fibre broadband connections with minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second are available to more than 200,000 homes, farms and businesses. NBI will ultimately serve 564,000 premises, so we have now reached over a third of the rollout and are ahead of our target of 185,000 premises passed and ready to connect by January 2024.

“The design and build of a high-speed wholesale broadband network is a major, complex infrastructure project which takes place in a phased process. We have now completed the vast majority of the engineering and design groundwork that is fundamental to the delivery of the project, with three in every five premises either under or completed construction.”

Progress Update:

—  Over 77% of premises (437,887) have now completed the survey and design stages of the programme.

—  3 in 5 (62%) of the project (353,684 premises) has moved to or through construction, with over 38% of premises (215,065) now in the build complete category.

—  The number of premises passed and which can connect to the fibre network will be over 200,000 this week, which means the target of 185,000 premises by the end of the current contract year in January 2024 will be surpassed.

—  Over 60,000 premises are now already connected to the NBI network, which is significantly above all previous forecasts, which envisaged 50,000 connections by the end of the current contract year in January 2024.

—  Take-up rates are above 40% in areas where the network has been live for longer than twelve months, and the average take-up rate of 30% is well ahead of projections and international comparisons.

Minister Ossian Smyth, Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement, eGovernment and Circular Economy, said: “It is great news that this week over 200,000 homes, schools and businesses can now access high-speed, reliable broadband under the National Broadband Plan. With the fibre network delivered by NBI, Irish people will be able to work, study and stream entertainment from the comfort of their own homes all over the country.”

National Broadband Ireland Chairman David McCourt said: “Getting major infrastructure projects right is a huge challenge globally, but with 200,000 premises now passed by high-speed fibre, Ireland’s National Broadband Plan proudly sits among the top global mega projects for being on budget, on schedule, and still delivering against its original objectives. Once completed, all parts of Ireland will have access to a modern and reliable broadband network capable of supporting the communications, information, education and entertainment requirements of current and future generations.

“It’s interesting to note that the EU recently highlighted in its Report on the State of the Digital Decade that Ireland and many EU countries have faced challenges in terms of take-up of high-speed broadband services. At NBI, we are also bucking this trend with average take-up rates well ahead of projections and international comparisons.”