Better broadband on the way

Better broadband may finally be on the way for County Leitrim, councillors learned at the latest meeting of the Manorhamilton Municipal District.
Leitrim County Council's Nicola McManus gave a presentation on National Broadband Ireland's (NBI) seven year plan and revealed there is planned investment of €46m across County Leitrim.
She added that there are 11,469 premises in the intervention area accounting for 51.4% of premises in the county including homes, farms, commercial premises and schools.
She explained that surveying work is completed in a number of areas including Manorhamilton, Carrigallen and Rooskey and Section 254 licences are currently in process for poles, etc related to the build phase in these areas.
When infrastructure is in place, NBI will work with retail suppliers then to connect premises as per demand.
Ms McManus said there are a number of Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) in Leitrim including at Drumkeeran Enterprise Centre, Leitrim Gaels Community Facility, New Ballagh Centre, Rossinver, Aughawillan Community Centre, Aughavas GAA Park, Aughawillan GAA Club Room and Aghanlish Community Centre, Rossinver.
Cllr Mary Bohan said in relation to Drumkeeran Enterprise Centre, she has brought up the issue of a lack of high speed broadband at the centre for “maybe ten years.”
She said, “Through Nicola's intervention, we had someone out a few weeks ago and he lifted the manhole cover to show us the cables and said we could connect.”
She added, “It will make a huge difference because now you can advertise them and say they have high speed broadband.”
She said that this was after meeting two other companies at the location who said they could not connect the units due to an absence of poles.
Ms McManus added that in March 2023, SIRO Network made contact with the council with a view to rolling out fibre to the homes in Carrick-on-Shannon.
The roll out will include over 1,800 homes and businesses in Carrick-on-Shannon.
Homes and businesses can order SIRO’s fibre broadband from its network of retailers, including Vodafone, Airwire, Sky, Pure Telecom, Digiweb, Viatel, Blacknight, Fastcom and Telcom, with speeds of up to two gigabits per second available for homes in the area, and up to 10 gigabits for enterprise connections.
The build stage commenced in May and should be complete by the end of 2023.