Fibre to rural homes demand made

A group of councillors from both sides of the Irish border are demanding more be done about broadband provision.

Local council representatives from Fermanagh and Omagh, Mid Ulster as well as Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon want a greater number of rural homes hooked up to the internet via high-speed fibre connections.

In a report published this week by the Irish Central Border Area Network (ICBAN), politicians from both sides of the Irish border have decided to voice their "continuing frustrations" with the state of broadband connections in the countryside of both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

'Fibre at a Crossroads' details the current challenges facing internet provision for rural householders and offer "technical infrastructure solutions" to the issue of poor provision in the two country's greenbelt.

Cllr Sinéad Maguire (Sligo County Council), Chair of ICBAN explains the reasoning for the project, “There are common business challenges and frustrations which arise from not being able to access and use the internet, by virtue of location alone."

"This is not forgetting the teachers whose interactive white boards can’t operate to support curriculum content, the farm family worried about submitting their returns online and on time, or university students less inclined to return home as much as they might like to because the home Wi-Fi doesn’t meet their expanding demands," she added.

"This report by ICBAN is an initiative to help address these challenges by focusing on the technical infrastructure solutions,” she continued.

The report does acknowledge that much has already been achieved in getting broadband infrastructure into rural areas and that those involved should be commended.  

"Too many frustrations still exist and many citizens don’t have a service that meets their needs and indeed many have no service yet at all. After all, rural citizens have the same needs and rights to demand a service comparable to urban dwellers elsewhere on these islands and continent,” Cllr. Maguire went on.

Quite simply, ICBAN want fibre rolled out directly to homes in rural border regions. At present, fibre cabling is used to wire data from the source to cabinets which only go so far. From these cabinets, the data is transferred to dwelling using outmoded copper cables.

"It is argued that the Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) practice has limitations which are evident in rural areas," the report says

"Taking Fibre to the Premise directly, or FTTP as it is known, would be a more appropriate and ‘future-proofed’ solution. The report argues that this is not as expensive or difficult to deliver as may have been stated in the past," it adds.

For Mid Ulster District councillor, Cathal Mallaghan (Sinn Fein) it's a relatively straightforward solution, one not bogged down with cost.

"The really good thing about this problem is that part of the solution has already been built. Many of these cabinets are already fibre-ready," he told Q radio news. 

"It's about making sure those connections are now made - and that's where we want to see any new money spent," he added.

They group welcomed news that BT will be rolling out to 38,000 premises in the current round of broadband developments supported by the government.

They also say it's financially do-able with the help of £270 million of subsidies being handed back to the UK government - they want to see that "recycled and invested" back into addressing the issue of broadband provision.