Eir adds 200,000 homes and more businesses to its gigabit fiber network

Updated 5 minutes ago

The EIR said 200,000 homes and other businesses are set to have access to its Gigabit fiber optic network.

The company says the move means that 1.9 million, or 84% of buildings in the country will have access to gigabit fiber broadband.

Air said the new building to be upgraded is spread across every county in Ireland and reaches « more than 800 sites ».

In a statement to the magazineThe sites, Air says, are: « mostly in smaller communities than originally advertised, which were in every town and village with more than 1,000 buildings. »

The company also said the total construction program for the fiber network was five years.

The areas not covered by commercial broadband operators will be the target areas for state intervention under the National Broadband Plan.

Under the government’s plans to provide high-speed broadband to every building in the country, it will be delivered through a combination of commercial services and government investments.

The buildings include homes, schools, businesses and farms and the plan envisions that around 1.8 million buildings will be accessed by commercial operators while just over 540,000 will require state intervention.

Today, Air said the decision to expand the area covered by gigabit fiber networks was partly driven by increased demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are constantly monitoring connection rates to our fiber network and have seen connections to our rural network more than double in the past 18 months, which is indicative of the increased high-speed connectivity requirements for homes and businesses in Ireland,” Evann Managing Director of Eir Murphy said today.

« The pandemic has changed our needs and what used to be enough for the average family home is no longer enough, » she added.

previous government In late 2019, he signed the €3 billion National Broadband Plan Contract with the sole remaining bidder of the contract is Granahan McCourt.

The previous year, Eir had withdrawn Out of contract bidding process.