The company rolling out the high-speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan has confirmed to the Athlone Advertiser that construction has commenced to make high-speed broadband available to 1,555 premises in the Moate deployment area.
National Broadband Ireland (NBI ) stated that it had commenced construction works which would make connections to high-speed National Broadband Network available to homes, farms and businesses in close proximity to Moate and Lismacaffrey in North Westmeath.
Approximately 12,000 premises in Westmeath are included in the “intervention area” for rollout of the broadband network, including homes, farms, businesses and schools.
NBI said works had already been completed in other parts of the county with a total of 5,834 premises now available to order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband across Westmeath, 1,641 of these already connected to the network.
Under the National Broadband Plan, some €46 million is being spent on the new high-speed fibre network, which NBI said would “enable e-learning, remote monitoring of livestock or equipment, e-health initiatives, better energy efficiency in the home, and facilitate increased levels of remote working”.
“Our teams are working tirelessly on the rollout plan and considerable progress has been made on the developments in Westmeath. As the fast pace of the rollout continues, we are confident in our expertise to progress premises from the construction phase to the order phase.
“We are currently partnering with retail service providers, and other stakeholders, to connect homes in Westmeath. Minimum speeds of 500Mbps will be available.
“Our goal is to improve digital connectivity across the country. Digital connectivity has become a huge part of our everyday lives, and this new Fibre-to-the-Home network, will be a key enabler for the sustainability of local businesses and communities,” Peter Hendrick, the chief executive of NBI, said.
