Piltown/Fiddown build 150MB plus network with Leader and Tomar Trust support

The people of Piltown/Fiddown have future proofed their villages, making them attractive places to live, work and raise a family with support from Leader through the Smart Villages initiative and the Tomar Trust.

They quite literally got down into the trenches and built their own Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network through the voluntary Broadband 4 Our Community (B4OC) group.

In all, 750 homes and businesses in a 3.4sqkm area now have, or will soon have, access to at least 150MB speeds and a future-proofed high-speed broadband service they can afford. It is community-owned, community-driven and managed by B4OC.

Hundreds of families who struggled with speeds of between 1MB and 6MB also have the fibre power they need to work and study from home, to conference call and stream and really enjoy the benefits of living in rural Ireland. It’s also a godsend for businesses in the area and is expected to attract further enterprise to the close-knit and strategically-located hinterland that borders three counties.

“I went back to college to study computer science,” said B40C project manager, Jim O’Brien.

“I needed broadband to partake in the course and had to depend on a wireless dongle in my garage to get a signal. The main broadband providers just didn’t have what we needed.

“We had to do something. We love our village. We love our community. We wanted to keep it vibrant. We didn’t want all the young families moving out, moving off to the cities. We took it into our own hands that we wanted independence from all the third party providers. We wanted to take control of our digital future.

“We wanted to make Piltown an attractive place to live. When it came on to turning on the equipment we had invested in with the support of LEADER and the Tomar Trust, we already had 13 customers. We had spent every penny we had. We had taken a huge risk. We had gone out on a limb in a big way. When we did our final speed test, it was beyond alleluia. It was like striking gold.”

For more, check out www.betterbroadbandforpiltown.com.

People and community groups interested in building better, more inclusive communities can still register for an information and training workshop taking place tomorrow (Thursday).

The event focuses on the future of towns across the county and the services they provide. The free ‘Our Town’ event at Thomastown Community Centre begins at 2.30pm and will focus on the future of rural towns in Kilkenny, scoping out areas such as mobility, connectivity, inclusion and the circular economy.Pre-registration for tomorrow’s conference is essential as places are limited. Registration is open via the LEADER website or on Eventbrite.