Eddie Conroy, General Election candidate for the Roscommon Galway constituency, has said the exclusion of Boyle in the new Eir broadband roll out could result in “the recovery” never reaching Boyle.
Mr Conroy was responding to an article included in last week’s Boyle’d Pot blog on Boyletoday.com.
In a statement, he said “I read with interest your article in the Boyle’d Pot which correctly highlights the problems broadband users will face in Boyle, Elphin, Roscommon Town, Tulsk and Williamstown”
“Being close to one of the fibre cabinets, as you mention means you could get up to 100MB link. Generally you don’t get anywhere near the full 100MB.
However what Eircom are rolling out in other areas but excluding Boyle, is 1GB complete fibre link to your home or business.
That is a dedicated link to the individual so they will definitely have 1GB (over 10 times faster) upload and download.
This is a hugely significant blow to Boyle which is trying to compete with towns like Carrick and Sligo. It will see Roscommon Town become 2nd class to Athlone.
Under the Eir proposal, any potential new business looking to locate here will see villages like Ballinafad and Gurteen having the more attractive, faster broadband.
Most American/English companies like to have a live link back to their parent company in the U.S. or UK. Multinationals generally have several offices worldwide. The difference between 100MB and 1GB to these types of outfits is night and day. We will be left so far behind; the recovery may never reach Boyle. The world will have moved on and we will be too late.
The respective Chambers of Commerce in Boyle and Roscommon and the communities of Elphin, Tulsk and Williamstown need to make strong representation to both government and Eir through their elected councillors etc.
I will be writing to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Alex White to ask why these areas are to be denied the same chance to recover as the rest of the country.
The business people should be screaming for this decision to be reversed immediately.
People are underestimating how damaging this is for Boyle and the other areas. We are already well behind a lot of the country, this exclusion could see us cut adrift” concluded Mr Conroy.
(pic: wiwki media free images)
