Broadband roll-out starts to speed up

High-speed broadband will be rolled-out to almost 13,000 homes and businesses across County Galway in the next seven months.

Broadband provider, eir says a further 20,000 premises in the county by 2020 will benefit from its investment in fibre, which provides far faster connection and download speeds.

The new fibre broadband also gives more reliable and consistent internet connections, according to the company.

Currently, some 63,000 businesses and homes in Galway are connected to the fibre broadband service, which the company formerly known as Eircom claims delivers 1Gbs, or 1,000 Mbs broadband speeds.

Orlagh Nevin, of open eir, the wholesale division of eir, says some 12,900 Galway premises will be connected to fibre broadband between now and the yearend.

“We have a longer term plan for County Galway that includes adding around 20,000 more from 2017 onwards,” she says.

The areas and number of homes in each area to be connected by eir by the end of 2016 are located in all corners of the county, including: Oranmore (850), Athenry (800), Costello (370), Barna (240), Claregalway (1,400), Kilcolgan (1,150), Moycullen (800), Ballyconneely (340), Belclare (510), Cor na Mona (100), An Cheathrú Rua (480), Craughwell (770), Indreabhán (690), Kinvara (780), Rosscahill (430), An Spidéal (660), Turloughmore (830), Ballyglunin (1,030), Castleblakeney (350) and Maree (320).

The company says it is investing €30 million to roll-out high-speed broadband throughout Galway. By 2020, more than 100,000 homes and businesses in Galway will be connected to this fibre broadband, which is faster.

This, eir says, is part of a national investment of €400 million.

The fibre cables, which will be installed by eir’s in-house staff as well as contractors, are thin and will have no noticeable visual impact, says Ms Nevin.

Businesses and residents will have minimum disruption during the works, which may involve changing the broadband box in their premises.

The benefits of faster broadband are wide-ranging, says Ms Nevin.

“The existing customers would have just the basic broadband, a DSL connection, and depending on the package they would have speeds of five, six or seven megs. Under the fibre-to-home or fibre-to-the-cabinet, they will have broadband speeds of up to 100 megs,” she says.

It’s not just faster speeds of download, but it’s also more reliable. Access to the broadband is not shared and so there are no ‘dips’ in connection speeds, regardless of the number of devises in the household or business that are connecting, she says.

The new broadband is ‘future-proofed’, she says, and will meet the needs of broadband now and the demand into the future.

Faster broadband is not just for personal and business use, and can benefit farmers, too.

“We have one farmer who uses it to keep an eye on heifers when calving . . . there is CCTV in his shed and it’s connected to his iPhone and iPad through broadband. He can be in bed and keep an eye on what’s happening.”

The company is hosting an information session in Athenry this (Thursday) morning to explain to the community what its plans are and how faster broadband can benefit people living and doing business in County Galway.

Businesses who have experienced the fibre broadband will be on hand to give personal accounts of how they have benefited from it.

CEO of eir, Richard Moat, and representatives of the company will attend Athenry Community Hall, Clarke Street at 11am. They will update politicians, community and business representatives, and other ‘stakeholders’.

Interactive maps of broadband coverage in the county will be available for inspection and locals can pinpoint their homes or businesses.

There are some areas that are not commercially viable for eir to connect and so the Government will intervene with subsidies as part of its National Broadband Plan.

In the coming months eir, as well as five or six other broadband providers, will bid for the tender to roll-out high-speed broadband to these ‘blackspots’, which are not economically viable for the commercial sector to cover.