Louth first county to develop broadband strategy with plan launched this year

Louth is the first county in Ireland to produce a county-broadband strategy in response to the National Broadband Plan. Spear headed by the Louth Economic Forum, the strategy, which was launched in January and runs until 2020, aims to build on the significant progress achieved in recent years in broadband connectivity across the county, and in particular in facilitating access to rural areas that currently have little or no broadband.

‘ The Action Plan involves business, broadband providers and Louth County Council working together,’ explains Mary T Daly, Senior Executive Officer. ‘It is based on a partnership approach to identify barriers to fast broadband, and to identify solutions to those barriers so that business, and communities, can access highspeed broadband.’

Actions outlined in the plan include putting in place user-friendly procedures for companies investing in new broadband infrastructure and encouraging a similar approach from other regulatory agencies operating in the county, as well as identifying business broadband blackspots in the county.

One of the aims of the Louth Economic Forum is to make Louth the county of choice to do business. ‘At present, Louth is the third best broadband-enabled county in Ireland, behind Dublin and Kildare,’ says Mary. ‘It is envisaged that approximately 50,700 of the 60,000 premises in the county will have high speed broadband connectivity by the end of this year.’

Chairman of Louth County Council’s Economic and Enterprise Strategic Policy Committee, Councillor Mark Deary said: ‘A reliable and fast internet connection is critical to business growth and development and is essential to modern business practice.

Whether big or small, companies now generally have an online component, through a company website, cloud computing, remote working or simply email connectivity.’