The National broadband plan is a government initiative to bring a minimum of 30 megabits to all premises in Ireland. The plan so far costed between €500m and €1bn is now likely to cost 60pc more than what the politicians and civil servants predicted.
In other words, the NBP will not kick off until 2018, meaning the final homes or businesses in rural Ireland won’t receive a decent connection until potentially 2023 or beyond.
Eir contribution to the NBP is to see 300,000 premises connected to fibre, bringing Eir’s total fibre footprint in Ireland to 1.9m premises by the end of 2018.
Orlagh Nevin, Open Eir’s director of sales, marketing and service, said: She added that the deployment of fibre will remove a barrier that had prevented people remaining in rural Ireland, and enable them to build lives and businesses in the places they want to stay.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten, TD, said that there is momentum in terms of broadband connectivity and, more importantly, the quality of broadband, citing a 38pc increase in the quality of services since he took office 18 months ago.
He said that currently, 171 homes a day are being connected to some kind of broadband service.
Read the full story here independent.ie
Also, check out our website for more info about rural broadband plans.
