Frustration with slow internet speeds is nothing new to those of us living in rural areas. Irish Farmers Journal writer Thomas Hubert has struggled to get broadband installed in his Co Meath home and hopes that fibre will be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Well this might just be case, as today Eircom announced that an additional 300,000 homes will be included in the extension of their fibre footprint, making speeds of 1Gb/s available to an additional 300 communities not currently served by high speed broadband.

Townlands from every county in the country will benefit from this new roll-out, with the homes and businesses being served by this investment largely taking the form of ribbon style developments across rural Ireland. They include communities such as Fybagh, Co Kerry; Blacksod, Co Mayo; Goleen, Co Cork; Maam, Co Galway; and Ring, Co Waterford.

Half of Ireland, 1.2 million homes and businesses, already has access to high speed broadband on eircom’s network. By 2020, it is projected that this will rise to 80% of the country, with 35% all homes and business accessing broadband speeds of up to 1Gb/s when construction completes.

“Today’s announcement underlines our continued ambition for Ireland and commitment to strategic investment by our shareholders, board and management” says Richard Moat, CEO Eircom. “No other operator in Ireland is investing as extensively in fibre broadband. This is a critical development as we build a future proofed network using a best in class technology to deliver the highest broadband speeds to many rural communities right across Ireland.”

He also states that this will reduce the intervention footprint under the Government’s National Broadband Plan, thereby reducing the burden for the taxpayer at a time where there is enormous demands for Exchequer funding.”