THE rollout of fibre broadband is almost complete in West Cork, says National Broadband Ireland (NBI).
The company, which is tasked with delivering the state-backed National Broadband Plan, has announced that the rollout in the region is in its final stage, with the remaining 500 homes, businesses and farms due to be completed in the coming months.
NBI’s work in the area means that almost 8,300 premises can now order a high-speed fibre broadband connection.
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Some 500 rural premises will soon be able to connect to the NBI network in areas including Bantry Bay, Bere Island, the Beara Peninsula and the Sheep’s Head Peninsula, the company said.
Works have already been completed in many rural parts across the county including Schull and Skibbereen.
And a total of 23,841 connections have been made to date in County Cork.
TJ Malone, NBI’s CEO, said: “With the national switch-off of the copper network approaching, NBI’s fibre network will ensure communities across Ireland are prepared for the future by supporting remote working, education, healthcare access, and local enterprise while providing the reliability needed for everyday living.”
Nationally, NBI said almost half (44%) of remote rural farms have signed up to high-speed fibre broadband, a significantly higher figure than the general take-up rate of 36%.
In total, 65,000 Irish farms will get access to the NBP rollout by its finishing date this year.
Around 564,000 rural homes, businesses, schools and farms come under the NBP’s so-called intervention area, locations that commercial providers will not service with high-speed broadband.
And overall rural Ireland has overtaken the country’s biggest cities in terms of access to the fastest broadband, according to a new league table from the communications regulator.
The findings mark a significant change in Ireland’s broadband map.
Many rural counties now outperform urban ones for availability of the highest speed broadband. Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford all have less high-speed fibre broadband availability than rural counties such as Kerry, Roscommon, Cavan, Tipperary and Offaly.
The league table published by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) highlights a new broadband divide in Ireland.
According to ComReg, Westmeath and Longford are the country’s strongest broadband hotspots, with both counties recording 96% coverage for gigabit fibre broadband coverage, over 30 times the minimum 30Mbs standard to be considered high-speed broadband in Ireland.
At the end of June 2026, there were almost 2.18 million active total broadband subscriber lines in Ireland, says ComReg.
The regulator’s recent report also shows changing communications habits.
On average each month, a mobile voice subscriber used 136 minutes, sent 30 text messages and consumed 22.8 GB of data.
Texting fell by 5% over the year, while mobile data use rose by 16%.
