Eircom is ratcheting up its high-speed fibre broadband rollout and will increase its footprint from a targeted 1.6m homes and businesses by 2016 to 1.9m across Ireland by 2020.

The operator said the additional 300,000 homes and businesses are spread across 1,070 communities in all 26 counties, and include 300 communities not currently served with high-speed broadband.

Speeds of up to 1Gbps will be available through the use of ‘end-to-end’ fibre to the home (FTTH) technology. This expanded footprint means eircom will invest €400m in fibre over the next five years.

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 — Eircom CEO Richard Moat

The homes and businesses to be served are largely ribbon-style developments across rural Ireland in communities such as Fybagh, Co Kerry; Blacksod, Co Mayo; Goleen, Co Cork; Maam, Co Galway, and Ring, Co Waterford.

Today, half of Ireland, 1.2m homes and businesses, already has access to high-speed broadband on Eircom’s network and the company remains on track to reach 70pc of the country by the end of 2016.

By 2020, that will rise to 80pc of the country, with 35pc of all homes and business accessing broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps when construction completes.

“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,” said Eircom CEO Richard Moat.

Last month Eircom revealed how high-speed fibre was transforming a community in Belcarra, Mayo, and said that it has so reached nearly 1.2m of the 1.6m homes and businesses it plans to pass with fibre broadband by the end of this year.

The company also launched its new 1Gbps service, which will use more than 90,000km of fibre optic cable to connect 66 communities with these speeds.

“By making high-speed broadband available to as many people as possible, today’s announcement also reduces 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,” Moat said.

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