Broadband Blackspots: ‘It could be 2026 before we get connected’

BECTIVE

Moving around the house, desperately looking for a signal is almost a way of life now for Helen Tuffy and her sons, who live near Bective Abbey.

"Most people around us have fibre broadband, but we are in a bad spot and have been told it will be 2025 or 2026 before we are connected and in the meantime, we have to rely on dongles and it is almost impossible."

"We have Vodafone and 3 dongles and it is costing a fortune," she says.

"My two sons are in secondary school and they are both gamers, so you can imagine the shouting we have here.

"We have to move the dongles around the house to get a signal."

Helen has been told the reasons for her problems are that most of her neighbour who have good broadband are connected to the Tara system, while she gets her signals from Navan.

"Back in 2016, I was given the option to work from home, but all I could do was make phonecalls. I couldn't log on to the systems we use at work, so it wasn't possible.

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"The children need broadband for their schoolwork and for gaming.

"During lockdown when the schools were closed, it wasn't great. They managed and did what they could," she recalls.

"It is just the two boys and myself here and I would like to take in a lodger, but you'd have to have WiFi," she says

"What we have at the moment is expensive but we don't have the speed or connectivity we need.

"With the better broadband, we are always conscious that it is going to run out and we have to top up by €5 or €10. We have to move around to get signals and we are often on a phonecall that just suddenly gets dropped.

"My sons really need better broadband, but it looks like they will have left home, by the time we finally get proper fibre broadband," she says.