More than 3,300 homes, businesses, and farms in the rural Ballinasloe area can now connect to high-speed fibre broadband.
National Broadband Ireland (NBI) have stated that they have completed a €12 million investment in the fibre network for Ballinasloe.
Peter Hendrick, NBI Chief Executive Officer, said that half of the network nationwide is either completed or under construction.
“The take-up of high-speed broadband on our network has been fantastic and we’re keen to continue to accelerate our rollout and bring the benefit of high-speed fibre broadband to more and more homes, businesses and farms.”
“In Galway we will connect 40,000 premises overall and over a third of those are ready to connect now, including 10,000 homes, businesses and farms in the rural surrounds of Ballinasloe, Loughrea, Athenry and Gort.”
Local Ballinalsoe man Damien Loughnane, who is connected to the NBI network through broadband provider Sky, said that he was pleased to have broadband speeds “many, many times faster” than previously.
“It’s been transformative for our family, allowing both my wife and I to work remotely during the week,” he added.
“We’ve been able to organise our days in the office to mean that at least one of us is always able to be home with the kids, which obviously has a huge impact on things like childcare and our own work-life balance.”
“Beyond our jobs, there’s been other great benefits to the new connection as well. Everyone in the house can all be online at the same time, watching TV, playing games, studying or working, which is a massive bonus.”
Under the National Broadband Plan, 569,000 premises nationwide are included in the Intervention Area, which is directed at areas where commercial operators are not currently providing or intending to provide access to high-speed broadband.
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.
