High speed broadband now available to 14,500 Meath homes under National Broadband Plan.

Almost a third of the 14,500 homes and businesses in Meath who can avail of high speed broadband under the National Broadband Plan have so far signed up, according to latest figures from National Broadband Ireland (NBI).

Some 4,500 homes in the State intervention area are now availing of high speed fibre broadband through NBI's network, representing around 31 per cent of the 14,500 premises that are ready to be connected.

A total of 21,000 premises in Meath are included in the State’s Intervention Area, which will see NBI deliver minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second to homes, businesses, farms, and schools. As the biggest investment in rural Ireland since rural electrification, Co Meath will receive €76M of Government investment under the National Broadband Plan.

National Broadband Ireland is urging people living in Meath to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect.

There are a total of 14,545 premises that can now pre-order or order high-speed, reliable broadband across the county with 4,512 connections made so far. This includes the rural communities of Navan, Carnaross and Hill of Down.

NBI has now passed over 346,000 homes, farms and businesses in rural Ireland to high-speed broadband with over 120,000 now connected. NBI says the average take-up rate of 33 per cent is well ahead of projections and international comparisons and surpasses 50 per cent in areas of the country where the network has been live for 18 months.

Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland, said: “We are delighted to announce that over 4,500 Meath premises have already connected to NBI’s network. Overall, over 14,500 homes, businesses and farms in Co Meath can now order a high-speed fibre connection to the NBI network. This includes 2,400 premises near Carnaross, over 1,300 near Hill of Down, almost 3,300 near Navan and over 700 near Delvin on the Meath-Westmeath County border. This will enable those who connect to experience the life-changing benefits of high-speed broadband with minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second.

“We are working hard on the ground to progress other areas of the county through engineering and construction phases. We are encouraging Meath residents to visit the NBI website to check their Eircode and sign up for updates.”

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 68 are certified as ready to start providing connections as of today.