A large crowd attended a meeting in the Mevagh Family Resource Centre in Downings to discuss a time frame on the rollout of fibre broadband in the area.
The meeting was attended by Stiofán Ó Cúlláin, Chief Executive of Údarás na Gaeltachta, Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Gaeltacht Affairs and Natural Resources, Joe Mc Hugh and Counsellors Mick Quinn, Gerry Mc Monagle, Liam Blaney, and a wide representation from the business community.
Pádraig Mc Ginty who chaired the meeting began by reading out a statement from Paul Bradley, Director of Corporate Affairs, Eircom.
He stated that fibre broadband is already available in Carrigart and work to extend services to Downings has already commenced.
Eircom will be providing this service with fibre to the cabinet architecture (FTTC), Downings, which will offer speeds of up to 100Mb/s to the local community. Construction of the sub-duct has now completed and work to run the fibre cable through the duct to the specific cabinet location in Downings will commence shortly. At this stage, Eircom network planners are hopeful that service to customers may be available within approximately six months.
When completed, premises located within approximately 1.5 to 2 kilometres of Downings village should see speed benefits. Broadband remains a distance technology so by definition those homes and businesses located closest to the cabinet will see the fastest speeds. It is important to note that while many customers in Downings will benefit not all will.
For customers on the Ros Goill Peninsula who will not benefit from our commercial rollout via Carrigart or Downings, they will fall under the Government’s planned National Broadband Plan, which sets out a plan to provide every home and business with a minimum of 30Mb/s by 2020.
Stiofán O Cúlláin stated that Údarás has recently invested in bringing broadband to other areas of Donegal and were ready to invest in bringing it to the Industrial Estate and that fast speed broadband was essential in promoting industry.
Minister Mc Hugh stated that in addition to the 12 million investment by Eircom in the broadband networks in Donegal, Vodafone has also invested 4 million in upgrading services in the county by introducing 4G. Downings was one of the first regions to upgrade to enhanced 3G data services. Carrigart will have 4G in September though it is not possible to confirm that Downings will receive it as a result.
A follow up meeting will take place in the Mevagh Family Resource Centre at 7.30pm on Wednesday the 7th of October. Paul Bradley, Eircom Director of Corporate Affairs has committed to attending this meeting.