A new milestone has been reached for National Broadband Ireland (NBI), as its 50,000th connection was marked at Noreen O'Connor's farm in Co Cork.

The Knocknagree native said that she has seen big improvements since connecting to the NBI network.

"There are several things on the farm that require a strong broadband connection from the calving cameras, to registering and tagging animals, to applying for online grants.

"Since the pandemic, most of the marts have moved to a hybrid approach. Our local mart - Gortatlea Mart - only takes place online now at night. Without a reliable connection, we wouldn’t have access at all," she said.

Connections

High-speed fibre connections are now available to over 180,000 homes, farms and businesses across all 26 counties.

The number of homes, farms and businesses connected to the NBI network has doubled in the last nine months, according to CEO Peter Hendrick.

“Over 180,000 premises are ready to connect by signing up with one of our 62 retail partners.

"We’re hearing back from connected customers that minimum speeds of 500 megabits per second are transformational for businesses looking to expand and diversify and for families accessing multiple devices online at the same time," he said.

In Cork, one quarter of the rollout is now complete, with almost 22,000 premises ready to connect.

Farmers are encouraged to visit nbi.ie and check their Eircode to find out if they are eligible and sign up for updates.

Minister of State with responsibility for public procurement, eGovernment and circular economy Ossian Smyth said: "Families like Noreen O’Connor’s can now access high-speed internet at their farm and join 50,000 Irish households, farms and businesses who have signed up, with the service currently available to over 180,000.

"No matter where you live in Ireland, fibre broadband to the home will allow you to connect to the internet with fast, reliable service.”