National Broadband Plan halfway to target, EY report finds

Nearly 330,000 premises can now access or pre-order broadband internet in Ireland, signifying “much progress” made in the National Broadband Plan (NBP), an EY interim evaluation report has found.

The report found that the progress showed a “significant step in Ireland’s journey towards bridging the digital divide”.

Fully rolled out, the plan, expected to reach its goal by 2027, aims to provide broadband connectivity to more than 1.1m people across 600,000 households and businesses in Ireland where commercial operators do not currently provide high-speed connectivity.

The global professional services firm, EY has recommended that National Broadband Ireland Infrastructure “ramp up” its capacity to meet demand while noting an “observed shortfall” in the data available on the national coverage of high-speed broadband.

According to the report, more than 100,000 of the connected premises across the country have already availed of broadband internet. 955 of the connected premises are ‘strategic community points’ including schools, Garda stations and other public spaces and free-to-access buildings.

Welcoming the progress, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications Ossian Smyth, TD, said that “the project is delivering higher benefits than expected”.

“Every primary and secondary school in Ireland now has fast broadband,” Smyth said.

“Thousands are now working and studying from their rural homes. Businesses, who were surveyed, reported an increase in customers.”

The EY report revealed that 49pc of the residents surveyed in the broadband area said the upgrade had improved their quality of life and 15pc of businesses surveyed had increased employee headcount as a result of upgraded connection.

Earlier this year, National Broadband Ireland CEO Peter Hendrick said there are now 70 retail service providers on the company’s network to provide “huge choice for anyone connecting to high-speed fibre”.

“Our roll-out will ensure that every home, farm and business in Ireland has access to high-speed broadband with minimum speeds of 500Mbps available,” Hendrick said.

However, the plan roll-out has been spread unevenly. The NBP has reached nearly 77pc of its target in Co Laois, while reaching just 8pc in Co Leitrim.

The NBP is expected to bring high-speed broadband internet to 23pc of Ireland’s population, covering 96pc of the country’s landmass. Signed between National Broadband Ireland and the Government, the NBP was contracted for 25 years.

The EY report noted that the NBI reached its 2024 goal of passing 300,000 premises, though the company has been criticised in the past for delays and has changed its targets multiple times.

Earlier this year, Virgin Media agreed to a network deal with National Broadband Ireland to boost its market share across the country. Silicon Republic