Independent Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten TD has paved the way to ensure that an additional 300,000 premises across Ireland can access high speed broadband within 90 weeks – of which many of these are in North Cork.
These premises were previously part of the State Intervention Area but will now be provided by Eir. The Minister has also updated the map to add 84,500 premises to the State Intervention Area. This is as a result of commercial investment which has not materialized.
Independent Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten TD
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 €2.5bn 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.”
Local Independent North Cork Cllr. O’ Shea said “There are many new premises in villages across North Cork now included in this announcement. Premises in the villages of Castlemagner, Churchtown, Cecilstown, Kilbrin, Milford, Tullylease, Meelin, Rockchapel, Kiskeam, Cullen, Derinagree, Rathcoole, Kilcorney, Lyre, Nadd, Glantane, Bweeng, Mourneabbey, Burnfort, Dromagh, Ballyclough & Ballydesmond are now included and will have high speed broadband by the end of 2018”.
Cllr. O’ Shea added “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 Minister has promised that the majority of the remaining premises will have access by the end of 2020. I sincerely hope the Minister will keep to his word on this as High Speed Broadband is vital for the development and future growth and sustainability of rural Ireland”.
The revised National Broadband Plan intervention map will be available on the Department’s website [www.broadband.gov.ie] and people can check their premises.
The High Speed Broadband Map identifies locations and premises as being AMBER, BLUE or LIGHT BLUE.
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AMBER areas– which are the target areas for the State Intervention of the National Broadband Plan. The Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce has identified measures in the short term to improve broadband connectivity including in the Amber areas and work is underway to implement these measures.
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BLUE areas – where commercial operators are delivering or have indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services. Operators are continuing to enhance their services in these areas to improve access to high speed broadband and to increase speeds to meet consumer demand and customer requirements. Please contact us at Broadband@DCCAE.gov.ie to let us know if you cannot get High Speed Broadband from the providers in your area.
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LIGHT BLUE areas – new areas where commercial operators have committed to concrete plans to deliver high speed broadband in rural areas. The commercial rollout to these areas is primarily Fibre to the Home (FTTH). By 2018, all homes and businesses in these Light Blue areas can expect significant improvement to their broadband services.
