National Broadband Ireland says Westmeath surveying is 'well underway'

The investment planned for Westmeath by National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the new high speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) is to come to €46m, the firm has announced.

NBI has today announced that surveying works in Westmeath are “well underway” and that NBI crews have made substantial progress, with surveys now done in Delvin, Annagh, Dryderstown, Clondalever, and Mabestown.

“These initial works pave the way for the next stage of deploying fibre on poles/ducts and includes the erection of poles, unblocking of ducts, and the insertion of sub duct into existing ducts, for the fibre to be installed,” a company spokesperson said.

NBI contractors have been on the ground across the country for 22 months and over 291,900 premises nationwide have been surveyed to date. This involves physically walking the routes and documenting images, notes and measurements of the poles, cables and underground ducts in each area. These vital survey works enable “Fibre -to-the-Home" network designs to be completed for each of the 544,000 plus premises in the Intervention Area, as identified by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communication (DECC).

In Westmeath, there are 11,761 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools. This equates to 26% of all premises in the county.

NBI’s website www.nbi.ie has a search tool to enable the public to check whether their premises is within the rollout area, and to show indicative dates for areas being surveyed. NBI’s contact centre can be reached at 0818 624 624 (lo-call) or contactus@nbi.ie.