Kerry's remote Black Valley gets high-speed fibre broadband 

National Broadband Ireland works expected to be as transformative for the valley as electricity connection in 1977

Black Valley resident and NBI customer Anna Downing (seated, left) in her home with her neighbours Marcia Kissane and Eileen O’Shea, Minister of State Ossian Smyth and Anna’s grandson Nigel Leahy, checking the fibre broadband speed in Anna’s home. Picture: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD.

The first homes in Co Kerry's remote Black Valley — once a blackspot for communications — have been connected to high-speed broadband.

The connections fulfil a pledge by a senior executive with National Broadband Ireland (NBI) last February that the Black Valley would have better broadband than Ballsbridge, Dublin, within months.