Over 9,000 rural Tipperary properties now enjoying NBI high-speed fibre broadband

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) says over 9,000 Tipperary homes, farms and businesses are now connected to its high-speed fibre broadband.

NBI is the company delivering the new future-proofed, high-speed Fibre-to-the-Home network under the National Broadband Plan (NBP) on behalf of the Government. 

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A total of 31,000 premises in Co. Tipperary are included in the State’s Intervention Area, which will see NBI deliver minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second to local homes, businesses, farms and schools.

Co Tipperary is receiving €118M of Government investment under the National Broadband Plan which is the biggest investment in rural Ireland since rural electrification. 

NBI marked the milestone with two of the company’s Tipperary customers, Michael Mullane and Lorraine Randall.

Living in Grange, Clonmel, Michael struggled with an unreliable connection for years, which made remote working nearly impossible.

His home has recently been connected to the NBI network™ meaning that he can enjoy the benefits of fast, reliable broadband.

For Michael, this means less time spent buffering and more quality time connecting with his friends and family.

 “I didn’t realise what I was missing," he said. "Before switching to NBI’s fibre broadband, patchy internet was the standard, I couldn’t check my emails at home and online banking was impossible.

"Now with NBI’s fast and reliable broadband, working from home is hassle-free. There’s no more rebooting and all the family can stream, browse and game as they like. It has made my life so much easier and is an ideal fit for my family’s needs. The switch to NBI has felt like stepping into the modern world.”

Lorraine Randall of Ayle Farm, near Oola, has also seen massive improvements in internet speeds since connecting to the NBI network™.

Fibre-to-the-Home has brought benefits for family life, career opportunities and security in a remote location.

The Tipperary woman said: “Since connecting to the NBI network™, I’ve been able to get a remote job working for a global company from my home office on the farm.

"One of the conditions attached to the position was access to good internet speeds so having the connection to NBI’s high speed broadband opened up this opportunity for me.

“Living in a remote area, security is priority for my family. One of the benefits of high-speed broadband was the peace of mind that comes from being able to access a live feed and alerts, which are things we could never do before. Once you have access to this fast connection, you wonder how you ever managed without it.”

TJ Malone, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland, said: “It’s encouraging to hear the real impact of high-speed broadband on customers like Michael and Lorraine. Stories like these demonstrate the importance of reliable fibre broadband for rural communities in Co Tipperary and across Ireland. 

“Our fibre rollout is showing real momentum and progress. The take-up of high-speed broadband on our network has been fantastic and we’re keen to continue to accelerate our rollout and bring the benefit of fibre broadband to more and more homes, businesses and farms. I encourage Tipperary residents to visit nbi.ie/map and enter their Eircode to check if their premises is ready to connect.”

National Rollout Progress 

NBI has now passed over 403,000 homes, farms and businesses in rural Ireland to high-speed broadband with over 142,000 now connected. The average take-up rate of 35% is well ahead of projections and international comparisons and surpasses 50% in areas of the country where the network has been live for 18 months.  

The National Broadband Ireland website is regularly updated to show estimated connection dates. The easiest way to get updates on when a home or business will be ready to order is by signing up for NBI email alerts at nbi.ie/eoi/.  

 Choosing a Broadband Provider 

As a wholesale network operator, NBI does not sell fibre broadband directly to end users, rather it enables services from a range of broadband providers or Retail Service Providers (RSPs). As a wholesale provider, NBI will make the new Fibre-to-the-Home network available to all RSPs operating in the Intervention Area.     

Some 72 RSPs have already signed up to sell services on the NBI network™ and 66 are certified to provide connections as of today. To see the retail broadband providers that are currently licensed to sell on the NBI network™, visit NBI.ie/buy. 

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