Hanging on the line: Are you eligible for free fibre broadband?

Getting your free fibre-optic cable with National Broadband Ireland

If you’re in a broadband black spot and struggle to achieve speeds of 30MB, do a quick check on National Broadband Ireland's website to see if you are in what is termed the NBI’s “Intervention Area”. File picture

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is a Government initiative, rolling out high-speed fibre-optic broadband across 96% of rural Ireland, and targeting areas under-served by state-of-the-art communication technology. 

If you think you might be one of the 564,000 premises eligible for a free install of this super-cabling and don’t know what to expect, I’ve just had a tricky project completed, so here’s a quick refresher.

First of all, who is eligible for the free provision of fibre-optic cable for high-speed broadband? 

We’re not talking about the actual retail broadband service paid for by the month, but the provision of fibre-optic cable to the house. It’s this magic wiring that allows us to enjoy lightning-fast, future-proof broadband services with speeds of 500MB-2GB (depending on your hardware and installation detailing). Fibre-optic cable operates using pulses of light that can support all but limitless speeds as technology evolves, making it a stable and superior choice to copper cabling and satellite services. 10GB speeds are anticipated.

Surveying for National Broadband Plan near Ballaghaderreen.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) is the company responsible for building out and maintaining this high-speed broadband network. If you’re in a broadband black spot and struggle to achieve speeds of 30MB, do a quick check at nbi.ie using just your Eircode to see if you are in what is termed the NBI’s “Intervention Area”. 

This area is spread right across the country and covers around 23% of the population. If you are in that essential Intervention Area, you will fall into one of the NBI status groups. These are:

• Surveys Pending (approved, but not started);
• Surveys Underway (people with clipboards striding around);
• Network Builds in Progress (you may have noticed black exchange boxes appearing on local telephone poles or new poles in your area);
• Pre-order Status

You may be given an estimated date for connection to the network (the infrastructure itself), but it’s recommended to sign up for email notifications as these dates can and do change regularly. Notifications will keep you in the loop.

When the NBI come to your area during a survey and design process, they will determine if there are existing poles suited to taking the cable overhead to groups of eligible homes (as your landline telephone does), or underground conduit that might be suitable to run the service along and from the roadside towards homes and/or eligible business premises. In some situations, new poles will be installed to fill in gaps in the existing infrastructure where needed. If NBI need to talk to you at any stage, they will leave a paper drop-card.

There are two moments where most of us engage with the process — through pre-ordering your broadband service (which will trigger your cable coming to the house) and on the installation day when the retail broadband service provider shows up. 

The NBI will only come on your property with your express permission. If you have a long driveway (50M or more), underground ducting, or other complicating factors, chances are you will also meet up with the NBI engineer and their team to discuss solutions. They will likely take the initiative to contact you if there’s clearly an issue. In some situations, following consultation, new poles will be installed on your property at no expense to you.

The pre-order stage (this will be flagged up by a notification or a visiting broadband rep’) is a bit confusing, at least it was to me. 

To complete the installation of the cable from the public roadside to the house, you must show intention to sign up for a service package from a fibre-broadband provider (retailer) on the NBI register of 62. 

If you haven’t received an email notification that your area is at pre-order status, you will definitely notice something’s afoot when representatives of the retail service providers such as Eir and Vodaphone pop up on the doorstep enthusiastically flogging their deals. It’s a sign that 80% or more of the homes in your designated area have their cabling ready to be connected to the NBI fibre-broadband network.

Enter the complication I alluded to earlier. We had existing underground ducting put in by mole-drain by Telecom Éireann 25 years ago. I was anxious to flag this up to an NBI engineer. Our stuttering landline was by then long disconnected, but the ducting was still there. 

I emailed NBI once the pre-order notification came up in my email. Following a pre-order from an NBI registered provider and a hard days’ graft with diggers and cable avoidance devices (CAD), the NBI managed to wrangle the fibre-optic cable through that conduit right to the house. This removed the need for two poles which would have been unsightly (but, like the rest of the work, would not have cost me anything).

If you don’t have existing underground ducting suited to the fibre-optic cable and are set on burying the broadband cable, you will have to pay for the installation of the ducting from a suitable local contractor and meet the NBI's specifications. Explore the details of the requirements on underground ducting in the published guide at nbi.ie. Keep in mind, for overhead lines, trees may require cutting back, but this will be put to you by the NBI.

Installation of the cable to the house position can take an hour, or it can take two days. In most cases, with a little swag of overhead line coming from a roadside pole to your home, it’s a simple job.

Once you sign up for a monthly service, the NBI and the service provider will communicate. You don’t have to do anything further, just wait for a notification date. It’s important to understand this order. Pre-order status is reached, you choose your provider, the NBI run the cable to the house, and your actual service provider arrives by appointment (this may be a few days/weeks or even months if you delay). This last step connects the network to an indoor router.

The connection of your new cabling to a router will, in most instances, take a couple of hours. Getting the cable indoors may be taken on by the NBI team or the service supplier and requires drilling out a small (10mm) hole in the exterior wall or through, say, a window frame if you prefer. Two power sockets will be required (for the modem and fibre-connection box). 

Broadband speeds of 500MB are certain, but there are factors that may cloud your dream of 2GB performance. Your retail service provider should advise you.

If you have terrible broadband speeds and believe you have been ignored by the NBP, you can query The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) which will provide clarity. Contact the National Broadband Plan division of DECC using the dedicated web form on the NBI website ( nbi.ie ).