Eircom has announced its proposed solution to the Government’s tender to bring high speed broadband to rural Ireland.
Some 66,000 homes and businesses in rural Galway currently lie in areas within the National Broadband Plan intervention footprint, and are set to benefit from Eircom’s proposed investment in the high speed broadband network.
For the majority of these homes and businesses, the broadband supplied by Eircom will be Fibre to the Home (FTTH ). This would enable speeds of up to 1000mb/s, the fastest in Ireland and comparable to any other high-end service globally. With such a high speed connection, customers could download a high definition film in less than a minute, and business users will have bandwidth capacity to transfer applications and large data files at rates previously only made available to large enterprises.
The national solution proposed by Eircom would see 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable rolled out to the vast majority of the 700,000 homes and businesses across rural Galway that fall within the boundaries of the national plan.
The announcement of Eircom’s proposed fibre route was made in Belcarra, County Mayo. Speaking at the launch event, An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, said: “Our job in government is to ensure that any recovery that has taken place reaches every community in Ireland. Delivery of high speed broadband to rural Ireland is a key part of achieving this. Eircom’s Fibre to the Home pilot clearly demonstrates how high speed broadband can support and enhance every aspect of rural life, for people working remotely, running online businesses, or using new technology in farming. It also has the potential to transform education delivery in rural schools. This is part of building and maintaining rural communities for the future.”
Eircom CEO Richard Moat said: “The rollout of high speed fibre broadband to rural Ireland is the modern equivalent to the electrification programme. Over 60,000 homes and businesses in rural County Galway will have a once in a generation opportunity to revolutionise many aspects of rural life and reinvigorate our rural communities. If successful in winning the National Broadband Plan ender, Eircom will invest hundreds of millions of euro alongside the Government to roll out the best technology available right across Ireland.”
The tender for the National Broadband Plan is expected to issue in late 2015. The first home will be connected in 2016 with the plan’s completion date set for 2020. Pricing for broadband products will be the same in rural areas as in urban locations.
Eircom’s proposal comes as its existing €15 million commercial broadband rollout in Galway continues to make significant progress. Athenry, Ballinasloe, Ballymoneen, Barna, Claregalway, Loughrea, Kilcogan, Galway city, Moycullen, Oranmore, Oughterard, and Tuam are all live on the new high speed network.
Nationally, Eircom is committed to delivering high speed broadband to at least 1.6 million premises or 70 per cent of the population. In further good news for Galway’s broadband infrastructure, the county’s first Fibre to the Home network will be built by Eircom in Galway City and Loughrea, making them among the first locations in the country to receive this state of the art technology.
For more details regarding the high speed broadband roll out in Galway visit www.fibrerollout.ie For any other queries regarding Eircom services visit [email protected].
