As Ireland adjusts to the news that the National Broadband Plan likely won’t be completed until 2022, Open Eir’s wholesale managing director Carolan Lennon said she believes that the plan will nevertheless succeed and Ireland will leapfrog the world in terms of rural broadband connectivity.
In the coming year, Eir plans to connect at least 100,000 homes in broadband-deprived areas to 1Gbps services, creating a situation where rural areas could surpass urban areas for broadband speeds.
Today, 1.4m homes and businesses (60pc of premises) across Ireland can access high-speed broadband on Eir’s network.
This will rise to 1.6m, or 70pc of the country, by June of this year, and will reach 1.9m premises (80pc of all homes and businesses) thereafter.
Eir said it has commenced the rollout of high-speed broadband to the additional 300,000 homes and businesses in rural Ireland and aims to complete the first 100,000 by the end of this year.
Words by John Kennedy
