Rural homes and businesses in Mayo are among the first to benefit from a €300m high-speed broadband investment. Reliable 150Mbps high-speed broadband is now available to over 800,000 premises across rural Ireland.
This includes 234,000 premises in areas where Imagine is the only provider. Mayo is one of the counties to benefit most, as shown on the map. People can check their coverage at www.imagine.ie or call 1800 938 999.
The company has now started on phase two to deliver high-speed broadband to over 1.1 million premises by June 2020. This means that reliable high-speed broadband of 150Mbps is now available to over 800,000 homes and businesses across 31,000 rural townlands. This is welcome news for people in regional and rural areas who have been waiting for the upgrade of copper to fibre. The great news for rural dwellers is that Imagine’s network covers 234,000 homes and businesses in some of the most remote and rural areas across the country. So, where there was previously no planned commercial investment by any other operators, people can now connect to high-speed broadband this week.
Homes and businesses in rural areas across the county, from Ballina to Ballinrobe and from Newport to Ballyhaunis, can now join the thousands who are now connected. This means that rural homes and businesses that were facing the prospect of having to wait years- will now be among the first in the country to benefit from high-speed broadband.
The company is now publishing maps on www.imagine.ie for each local area showing where service is immediately available.
Announcing the completion of phase one of the rollout of its national broadband network, Imagine also confirmed that it is on schedule to extend coverage to over 1.1 million premises by June 2020. So, if people or businesses are not yet in coverage then they can register on www.imagine.ie with the Eircode of the premises needing broadband.
Removing the need to bring fibre to every premise and without the need for cables and ducting, Imagine Broadband’s network can now quickly extend high-speed broadband services even in more rural areas.
Speaking on the announcement, Imagine Commercial Director Brian O’Donohoe said: "Over the last six months Imagine has been busy rolling out a state-of-the art broadband network in the areas where it’s needed most. We now see people working from home being a real option in areas previously considered not viable. It was with great pleasure that we recently connected our first customers on Inis Mór (in the Aran Islands ) to a better broadband service than is available in most cities."
With the expectation that it would take years to deliver high-speed broadband in rural areas, and with phase one of the Imagine national broadband roll-out plan complete, the company is launching a country-wide awareness campaign to inform consumers of the areas where Imagine’s high-speed broadband is already available as well as additional areas that will be covered by the end of 2019. With their Eircode, homes and businesses can simply check if their premises are already covered on the company’s website www.imagine.ie, with new areas updated each month.
Commenting on the campaign Brian said: "With thousands of rural areas already covered the message is simple, if you thought it would take years to get high-speed broadband, check again."
