Fibre broadband rollout nears completion in parts of mid-Louth

National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company delivering high-speed Fibre-to-the-Home network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) has announced that construction is underway to deliver high-speed broadband to over 1,600 homes, farms and businesses in the Togher deployment area in Co Louth. This includes the rural surrounds of Dunleer and Clogher.

9,000 premises in Louth are included in the State’s Intervention Area, which will see NBI deliver minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second to homes, businesses, farms, and schools. 

Having successfully completed the survey and design phase of the project, 1,606 Louth premises in the Togher deployment area are under construction to have high-speed fibre network, due to be connected by the end of next year.

The National Broadband Ireland website is regularly updated to show estimated connection dates. Signing up to the NBI email notifications at https://nbi.ie/eoi/ is the easiest way to get the most up-to-date status of premises during the rollout and when premises will be ready for order.

Works have already been completed in other parts of Louth and surrounding areas, such as the rural surrounds of Dundalk and Drogheda. There is a total of 5,221 premises that can now order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county, with 2,476 premises already connected to the network. NBI is calling on people to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect.

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NBI has now passed over 355,000 homes, farms and businesses in rural Ireland with over 124,000 of these are now connected to high-speed broadband. The average take-up rate of 33% is well ahead of projections and international comparisons and surpasses 50% in areas of the country where the network has been live for 18 months.

TJ Malone, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland Deployment said: "Our teams are working on the ground all over the country and considerable progress has been made on the developments in Louth. High-speed fibre broadband is now available to order for over 5,200 homes, farms and businesses, including almost 1,600 premises near Drogheda, over 2,600 near Dundalk and almost 900 near Carlingford. We are encouraging Louth residents to visit the NBI website to check their Eircode and sign up for updates.

“Our overarching goal is to improve digital connectivity across the country. With minimum internet speed of 500 megabites per second, this new Fibre-to-the-Home network will play a pivotal role in sustaining local businesses and communities."

As a wholesale network operator, NBI does not sell fibre broadband directly to end users, rather it enables services from a range of broadband providers or Retail Service Providers (RSPs). As a wholesale provider, NBI will make the new Fibre-to-the-Home network available to all RSPs operating in the Intervention Area.   

Some 72 RSPs have already signed up to sell services on the NBI™ network and 68 are certified as ready to start providing connections as of today. To see the retail broadband providers that are currently licensed to sell on the NBI™ network, visit NBI.ie/buy.

The National Broadband Ireland website is regularly updated to show estimated connection dates. Signing up to the NBI email notifications at https://nbi.ie/eoi/ is the easiest way to get the most up to date status of premises during the rollout and when premises will be ready for order.  

In advance of the Fibre-to-the-Home rollout, the NBP provides for the delivery of Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) nationwide. 955 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 www.nbi.ie/bcp-map/. An example of some of the locations of Broadband Connection Points in Louth include Annaghminnon Rovers GAA Club, Clogherhead Pier and Stephenstown Pond Nature Park. Primary schools in the Intervention Area are now connected for educational access as part of the NBP.