It was a sunny June morning when Irish Country Living travelled to the town of Belcarra in Co Mayo. Taking a right turn, we ventured down a road with grass so overgrown in the middle, it made a scratching sound as it hit the car engine. Wrong turn. A dodgy reverse and on a road parallel, we came to the house of Conor and Anna Heaney.

Belcarra may be 15 minutes from Castlebar, but it is a small, rural farming community like so many others, where you would believe that high-speed broadband is a futuristic fantasy.

That was until November 2015, when Eircom approached residents to run a pilot scheme called Fibre to the Home. Running fibre straight into 300 homes, it has allowed speeds of up to 1GB per second (1,000MB per second), the fastest speeds in the country, comparable with the best broadband networks globally.

Putting Broadband

to the Test

Six months on from the installation, Irish Country Living visited the residents to see the difference it has made to their lives. Conor, who is a part-time suckler farmer, says he really put his new broadband speed to the test during the calving season.

“Once the broadband was up and running, I bought cameras for the cattle shed, which cost €1,500. It was a big investment, but it dramatically changed the calving season. Because of the high-speed broadband, I installed an app on my phone which allows me to clearly see what is going on in the cattle shed. From my phone, I can zoom in and out, and move the camera around, so I can see the shed from all angles.

“Obviously, the six weeks of the calving season can be stressful and in the past it often meant getting up in the middle of the night, walking across the field, turning on the lights in the shed, which would wake all the cows, only to find everything was fine.

“Instead, this season, I just switched on the phone, had a look and left the cows to progress along naturally without disturbing them. It made a huge difference to my quality of life.”

Always Close to Home

Conor also works at Mayo General Hospital and told us the cameras gave him much-needed peace of mind while at work.

“In the past, I’d head off in the morning and I’d often have to get my neighbour Michael Garvey to check on a cow that might be calving. He would close his garage, head over, give me a call and maybe go over again in the afternoon. You’d always be anxious that everything was alright and conscious that I would be disturbing Michael. Whereas with the camera, I can log on and check the sheds as often as I want.

“I had installed other cameras in the past, but, to be honest, without good broadband it’s just unreliable. This year, it made such a huge difference. I could even hook it up to the television and look at the shed on the bigger screen.”

Overall, Conor says he thinks it will allow him to farm for longer as it has taken much of the hardship out of the calving season. In the meantime, he believes it will have a positive impact on his profitability.

The Farm Office

“Having good broadband has also helped me with the farm office,” he laughs. “To be honest, the accounts isn’t a part of the job I particularly enjoy, but it has to be done. There is a big push on registering calves online. Before it was more hassle than it was worth, waiting for pages to load, but this year I did everything online and it was easy. It takes the human error out of it because it won’t register anything unless everything is correct. Also I don’t spend time going back looking for dockets and receipts of when I bought or sold cattle, everything is online.”

Apparently, Conor’s accountant is much happier with the situation.

“Over time, this is going to allow me to build my numbers as it means more time concentrating on the elements of farming that I enjoy and less time in the office.”

Benefitting the Family

For Anna and his four children Kate (11), Anna (nine), Sarah (eight) and James (four), the internet is also being put to good use.

“We have the movies on the go and it is definitely helping the kids with their projects in schools. For myself and Anna, it also means we’re able to manage our bills online. Jobs such as banking online were just infuriating in the past as it would often time out while you were in the middle of the job, but now it can be done without hassle.”

Be the next Belcarra

Inspired by the broadband situation in Belcarra? Determined your community could also benefit significantly from Fibre to the Home broadband? As part of the National Broadband Plan, the Government has committed to delivering high-speed broadband across the country by 2020. If successful in winning the National Broadband Plan tender, Eircom will invest hundreds of millions of euro alongside the Government.

However, if you want to skip the queue, Eircom has launched a nationwide competition to find the next Belcarra. With an investment of €250,000, over 300 properties in your area could benefit from high-speed broadband, including local businesses and schools.

Communities are asked to present a compelling case as to why their locality should win and become the next Eircom Fibre to the Home trial location.

The competition is open to communities with no access to high-speed broadband and who are awaiting the deployment of the National Broadband Plan.

Not only will this benefit the community that wins, Carolan Lennon, managing director of Eircom wholesale, says that overall “this competition will highlight the huge demand for high-speed broadband and demonstrate that an investment of this size can and will transform lives and businesses in rural communities”.

Supporting the competition and acting as judges are Irish Country Living, the Small Firms Association (SFA), online digital publication Silicon Republic and the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), all of whom welcome the initiative and see how the benefits can transform a community.

In the coming weeks, Irish Country Living will give you an insight into what judges are looking for from the winning entry, but in the meantime, you’ll find all the details on www.fibrerollout.ie. The closing date is 15 September 2015, so get your entries in before then.

Coming soon in Irish Country Living

Conor is just one of the residents Irish Country Living met while visiting Belcarra. In the coming weeks we will chat to Brian Smith, who is managing a medical equipment company from his home which involves running five different websites.

And Michael and Kathy Garvey, who no longer have high phone bills. For the first time, the family can Skype with their son and first grandchild living in America.