Pilot scheme brings fast broadband delights to Belcarra

Calving season used to be more complicated for Conor Heaney, a part-time suckler farmer with a day job as a maintenance carpenter in Mayo General Hospital.

When a cow was close to calving, he’d ring his neighbour — a garage-owner — who’d close his business and walk 200m down to Conor’s farm to check on the cows. “On a day that a cow was unsettled, my neighbour would do that at least twice, because I’m gone from 8am to 5pm.”

It has changed since earlier this year, when Conor was one of 70 homes and businesses in Belcarra in rural Mayo to sign up for Eircom’s Fibre to the Home (FTTH) pilot project, which delivers high-speed (1GB) broadband.