Some 65,000 farms are set to have access to high-speed fibre broadband after National Broadband Ireland (NBI) revised its rollout of the National Broadband Plan to include an additional 11,000 farms.

NBI’s updated estimate comes after the completion of its latest assessment of the areas it expects to be covered in the plan by 2026.

CEO of NBI Peter Hendrick claims to be overseeing a “far more ambitious” project than was initially intended, also stating that the switch to high-speed broadband is “game-changing” for farmers.

Original target

Hendrick told the Irish Farmers Journal that the original figure of 54,000 had been the target since 2019 when the Department of Environment gave the green light to NBI’s intervention area proposal.

“Since then, NBI is required to update its intervention area database each quarter, with the result that the intervention area has ultimately grown to 560,000 premises and is continuing to grow each quarter,” he said.

“With regard to farms, the number has grown by over 10,000 from 54,000 to 65,000 as of the latest update.”