Blacknight expands broadband offering by joining National Broadband Initiative as retailer nationwide to rebuild post-COVID Ireland
Blacknight, Ireland’s largest web host, domain registrar, and newest broadband provider has announced that it has joined the National Broadband Ireland project as a retailer to expand its growing broadband business. All Irish consumers can see if they qualify for fibre broadband from NBI in rural areas through Blacknight’s Eircode checker. Blacknight customers like Simon Woodworth are already seeing life-changing internet speeds.
NBI will bring high-speed fibre internet to over 500,000 premises throughout Ireland that did not have access to it before. Locally, over 8,000 premises in Carlow alone will be able to get state of the art super-fast fibre internet. With more people working from home, or starting hybrid office/home working arrangements, consumers now have more options on where to live. Fibre internet from NBI makes it possible and you no longer need to live in a city or town to get world-class high-speed internet.
“Let’s face it, the new reality post-pandemic is hybrid or remote working, and the one thing consumers and businesses need to make it work is high-speed internet. For too long, rural areas have been underserved by big broadband providers, high-speed options simply didn’t exist for them,” said Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon. “Now, with the rollout of NBI, hundreds of thousands of businesses can come online and operate at the same high speeds that have been available elsewhere. This supports our national vision for this country to make the most of digital opportunities.”
NBI broadband through Blacknight will be rolled out nationally as the new network is built. Customers can search for their address on Blacknight’s website here to check their eligibility and then sign-up to pre-order the service. If NBI fibre is not available, other broadband options will be shown such as wireless.
A Blacknight customer recently signed up for NBI fibre broadband, upgrading from really slow broadband. The difference in speed was jaw-dropping for Simon Woodworth, a cyber-security lecturer at University College Cork. He’s been relying on slow DSL for years, and with lockdown tried to use fast wireless, but it proved unreliable. Having a fixed fibre connection for someone who works in cyber-security has been life changing.
“Download speeds are very close to 1Gb/s which is incredible this far out in the countryside,” said Simon. “Before it was frequently as bad as 1 mb/s and sometimes non-existent. The speed difference is just incredible. But it isn’t just about speed. It’s about having a broadband service good enough that I no longer have to worry about it, the same way most people nowadays accept rural electricity as a reliable service. This is all great for working from home as I can pull down large lecture videos in seconds. Netflix is now effectively instantaneous when before it would buffer constantly. And finally, I can now entertain backing up about 1.5TB of photos to the cloud to keep them safe.”
In the NBI roll-out, 8,000+ premises in Carlow, 18,300+ in Kilkenny, 79,000+ in Cork, 15,300+ in Wexford, 26,900+ in Kerry and many more all over Ireland will be eligible for fibre broadband. Rural businesses can finally get broadband speeds that simply weren’t available before. The frustration of distance, antiquated hardware, and slow speeds will be a thing of the past.
“With great speed comes great possibilities. To succeed in the post-COVID pandemic world, it will be critical for businesses to get online,” said Blacknight CTO Paul Kelly. “This is just another pillar in our strategy to get Irish small businesses online. It started last year with selling the tools business needs to operate remotely, offering products to help small businesses sell online easily, and now we’re offering the fast broadband they need to succeed in this new reality.”
In all, 544,000 premises are eligible for NBI, 1.1 million people - 54,000 farms, 44,000 small businesses and 700+ primary schools. These new connections will change communities in Ireland forever and bring them up to speed with the connections required to operate in the post-COVID online-first world we all live in now.
“National Broadband Ireland welcomes Blacknight as a new Retail Service Provider to the National Broadband Plan,” said NBI Chief Executive Peter Hendrick. “As a wholesale provider, NBI is making the new Fibre-to-the-Home network available to all Retail Service Providers (RSPs) operating in the Intervention Area. By joining the NBI project, Blacknight is ensuring that customers will have more choices when it comes to connecting to our high-speed broadband network. As an increasing number of homes and businesses are being connected by Blacknight and other RSPs, we are confident that the rollout will continue to gather pace throughout the country.”
About Blacknight
Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and co-location as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting services and domain name registration services to business globally. IP transit services and other solutions for more demanding business and academic customers are offered a la carte. Fibre broadband services for both business and domestic users are also available throughout most of Ireland.