NBI adds higher-speed gigabit fibre option to National Broadband Plan

26 Jan 2022

Image: © tongpatong/Stock.adobe.com

Broadband speeds of 2Gbps will be available to residential and business customers.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company delivering the National Broadband Plan on behalf of the Government, is launching a new 2Gbps broadband offer as part of the roll-out.

NBI said today (26 January) that it is offering the higher-speed option in partnership with the 34 retail service providers selling services on its network.

Residential customers will be able to get 2Gbps download speeds with 200Mbps upload speeds, while business customers can avail of 2Gbps download speeds with 400Mbps upload speeds.

“We are delighted to facilitate this new offering for customers in partnership with all retail service providers on the NBI network,” NBI CEO Peter Hendrick said. “The comprehensive range of offerings available on the NBI network will empower customers across Ireland with a variety of different requirements in terms of broadband speeds.

“National Broadband Ireland is working to ensure that every person can realise their ambitions through access to high-speed broadband.”

The new 2Gbps service has expanded NBI’s product portfolio to six different offers for customers, three options for residential consumers and three for businesses. The entry level offering for customers on the network is downloads speeds of 500Mbps with upload speeds of 50Mbps. The main difference between consumer and business offers is an increased upload speed.

The National Broadband Plan aims to connect more than 1.1m people across 544,000 homes, businesses, farms and schools in Ireland where commercial operators do not currently provide high-speed connectivity. The plan also includes any new homes built in these intervention areas over the next 25 years.

NBI connected the first premises to the network at the start of 2021. Around 50 retail service providers have signed up to sell services on the network, though only 34 are certified as ready to start providing connections.

The full deployment of the National Broadband Plan contract, which was signed in November 2019, is expected to be complete by 2027 but delays have raised concerns about that deadline being met. The Business Post reported last week that NBI looks set to miss its revised goals for the second year of the roll-out.

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Leigh Mc Gowran is a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com