Broadband delay ‘death knell’ for rural communities

The delay to the rollout of the National Broadband Plan is a “death knell” for rural communities across the country, it has been claimed.

The Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources confirmed the €275m scheme, which promised to deliver high-speed broadband to 750,000 homes and businesses by 2020, will not start as planned this year.

The plan aims to bring broadband to 85% of premises by 2018 and cover the entire country by 2020.