Extra 300,000 premises to get high speed broadband
Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten has announced that an additional 300,000 premises across Ireland will be able to access high speed broadband within 90 weeks. These premises were previously part of the State Intervention Area but will now be provided by Eir.
As a result of commercial investment which didn’t materialise, the Minister has also updated the map to add 84,500 premises to the State Intervention Area. With this latest development, the Broadband Map which shows the premises which will require state intervention can now be finalised.
Minister Denis Naughten said: “Today is a good day for rural Ireland. The agreement that I have signed with Eir means one house every minute of every working day will get fibre to the door high speed broadband over the next 90 weeks. 300,000 more rural premises will have access to high speed quality broadband – that’s an extra 500 houses every day. Over the last four years commercial operators have invested over €2.5 billion upgrading telecoms networks and services. This is a clear indication that the state’s commitment to Broadband is driving investment from the commercial sector. With the finalisation of the Broadband map one of the key uncertainties in the procurement process has now been removed and will allow us to move closer to our goal of ensuring all premises in Ireland will have access to high speed broadband.”
In 2016 only 52% of premises in Ireland had access to High Speed Broadband (HSB). With this latest development 77% of premises will have access to HSB by the end of 2018 and the majority of the remaining premises will have access by the end of 2020.
