Full Fibre Coverage Checker Live for N.Ireland’s Project Stratum

The Northern Ireland Executive (DfE) has today announced that a new address level postcode checker is now available, which enables people to check eligibility and availability for when the new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network will reach them under the £165m Project Stratum rollout.

Last year saw newcomer Fibrus being selected to deliver Project Stratum (here), which including private funding will see a total of £350m being invested to extend “full fibre” broadband to more than 76,000 extra premises across some of the hardest to reach areas in Northern Ireland (e.g. rural) by the end of 2025.

The new Postcode Checker for this deployment is now live, although it’s worth noting that commercial deployments by Openreach (BT), Virgin Media and Fibrus have already helped to extend gigabit-capable broadband networks to cover almost 70% of premises across N.I. The extra investment from Project Stratum should make this almost universal.

Diane Dodds, N.I Economy Minister, said:

“I know when we announced that Fibrus Networks had been awarded the contract for Project Stratum many wanted to know where and when the investment would begin.

Fibrus Networks have now published their roll out plan and have begun building their infrastructure six months earlier than expected. With the availability of the postcode checker, those 76,000 premises set to benefit from Project Stratum will now be able to see when gigabit-capable broadband will be available to them.

Numerous communities, especially in rural areas, have been waiting a long time for improvements in their broadband speeds. Project Stratum aims to transform the broadband connectivity landscape for many of our citizens and businesses across Northern Ireland, with Fibrus Networks proposing a full fibre solution capable of offering speeds of up to one gigabit per second. While deployment plans can be altered for a number of technical or logistical reasons, I hope the checker will provide citizens with an indication of when work will commence in their specific areas.”

End.