National Broadband Ireland said today that 50% of all premises within its remit have had engineering surveys completed, which allows it to move to its network design and network build phases of the project.
NBI is the company rolling out the new high-speed fibre broadband network under the Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) initiative
As of this month, NBI has over 280,000 premises surveyed around the country.
Of these more than 230,000 premises are in network design and approximately 150,000 of these premises are in the final phase of the rollout with construction underway.
Over 34,000 premises can order / pre-order their connection today, the company added.
NBI contractors have been on the ground across the country since January 2020 carrying out engineering surveys.
This involves physically walking the routes and documenting images, notes and measurements of the poles, cables and underground ducts in each area.
Network designs for over 230,000 premises have been developed since the project started.
About 150,000 of these premises are currently in the build phase of the project, which includes the erection of poles, unblocking of ducts and the insertion of sub-duct into existing ducts, for fibre to be installed.
"The fact that we have seen the scope of this project grow is a vote of confidence in our capacity to deliver high-speed connectivity for families across rural Ireland," commented NBI's chief executive Peter Hendrick.
"Some of the increase is a natural increase in one-off housing and new build premises in communities, but we also know that the Department, under its overall NBP initiative, is looking in some considerable detail at premises that previously fell outside the scope of our project and they are determining that many of those premises, in order to have access to high-speed fibre broadband, need to be served by National Broadband Ireland," he added.
David McCourt, Chairman of National Broadband Ireland, said the completion of engineering surveys for over 50% of premises in the Intervention Area is a key milestone for the National Broadband Plan.
"This project is of vital importance in providing equal opportunities for communities across rural Ireland, and will help to promote and support social progress, equality and sustainability. This is the over-arching goal of the National Broadband Plan and we're incredibly focused on delivering this as quickly and effectively as possible," Mr McCourt added.
