Eir defends rural broadband roll-out despite uptake in under one-in-five homes

Eir has defended its roll-out of high-speed rural broadband despite fewer than one in five homes and premises covered by the service actually connecting up to it.

The company, which is providing fibre broadband in the vicinity of 330,000 premises as a precursor to the National Broadband Plan (NBP), says it never expected a full take-up and the likely end result will be “a fair amount below 100%”. It says it is satisfied with progress.