National Broadband Ireland Progress Update

National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the new high-speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP), issued a progress update that is showing strong momentum across all 26 counties.

By year-end 2022, NBI is on track to deliver premises under construction to grow by 43%, to 221,000 homes (40% of the 7-year target); premises available to order set to increase by 266% to 128,000 homes and premises passed to grow by 219% to 102,000 homes.

Specifically, on take-up, NBI reports take-up rates of over 30% already in Deployment Areas that have been live for 6 months or more.

National Broadband Ireland

David McCourt, Chairman of National Broadband Ireland said: “The leading indicators give us confidence that this ambitious project can and will be delivered on time and on budget. During 2022, 221,000 premises or 40% of the entire Intervention Area will be under construction, up from 28% last year.

At the same time, we anticipate that 128,000 premises will be available to order on the NBI Network. Our ability to move premises from the construction phases to the order phase is seriously ramping up which means users can reap the benefits of the transformational network sooner.”

NBI Chief Executive Peter Hendrick said: “Early take-up of services on the NBI network are already exceeding 30% in many of the initial deployment areas and it’s growing all the time, something we see as a really strong indicator of future demand. By comparison with any national or international comparison, this is indicative of very high uptake levels, substantially ahead of initial expectations.

Ultimately, we are confident of an overall take-up of approximately 85% and already have some 50 broadband providers signed up to sell services on the NBI network. This platform competition is expected to bring significant benefits directly to consumers by ensuring that bundled voice, broadband and TV packages offer real choice at competitive prices.”