Galway's Inis Mór island fibre optic roll-out progress
All 641 homes and businesses on Inis Mór can now connect to fibre broadband – with their neighbours on Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr on track to be connected to the NBI network later this year.
That also means that the rollout of high-speed fibre broadband across Galway has now passed over 33,000 homes, farms and businesses.
NBI’s connection of Inis Mór means that 641 homes and businesses on the island can now access high-speed fibre broadband – to be followed by 147 premises on Inis Meáin and 259 on Inis Oírr later this year.
The completion of works on Inis Mór means that 33,797 premises that can now pre-order or order high-speed, reliable broadband across Galway with 11,953 connections made to date. Works have also been completed in rural areas surrounding Galway City, Gort and Ballinasloe.
National Broadband Ireland is encouraging all Co Galway residents to visit nbi.ie and check their Eircode to see if they’re ready to connect and find out more about placing an order.
NBI’s fibre rollout under the NBP is delivering broadband infrastructure to what is known as the State’s Intervention Area, which includes the most remote and rural parts of Ireland where commercial operators have no plans to deliver high-speed broadband.
The Intervention Area currently includes 41,000 premises in Galway, which will see NBI deliver minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second to homes, businesses, farms, and schools across the county.
As the biggest investment in rural Ireland since rural electrification, Galway will receive €153m of Government investment under the National Broadband Plan.
NBI’s roll-out has now seen over 465,000 homes, farms and businesses in rural Ireland get access to high-speed broadband, with over 171,000 now connected.
The average take-up rate of 37% is well ahead of projections and international comparisons and surpasses 60% in areas of the country where the network has been live the longest.
The European Commission has proposed 2035 as the latest date for EU Member States to mandate the decommissioning of the legacy copper networks – but NBI’s fibre network aims to ensure communities across Galway are ready for the future by supporting remote working, education, healthcare access and local enterprise with the reliability needed for everyday living.