(stock photo)The chairman of the National Broadband Plan company says that the €3bn state-subsidised project may now be completed in five years rather than the seven years initially agreed under contract with the Government. The remarks from David McCourt will encourage Communications Minister Eamon Ryan, who is pressing Mr McCourt's National Broadband Ireland (NBI) consortium to move more quickly in connecting up to 540,000 rural homes and businesses to high-end fibre. "Hopefully we'll get it [the rollout] done in five years," Mr McCourt told a Reuters podcast. They are designed to give areas that are stuck with no connectivity a broadband lifeline. As first revealed by the Irish Independent, NBP services to rural will start at 500Mbs rather than the earlier-planned 150Mbs, due to separate action taken by Eir.

Source: Irish Independent September 10, 2020 01:30 UTC