The Black Valley in Co Kerry, valued for its scenic remoteness, will have “better broadband than Ballsbridge” in a few months, National Broadband Ireland (NBI) said as work on the state-of-the-art network was showcased this week.
Hidden among MacGillycuddy’s Reeks, the area was one of the last in the State to get electricity, finally being connected in 1977. Phone service arrived in the 1990s in the form of a radio link for 25 customers.
High-speed broadband for the 91 houses in the valley and its periphery is a project that has required as much time in planning as constructing, said TJ Malone, chief executive of NBI’s deployment arm.
A special area of conservation with enormous topographical challenges, the valley is between Kenmare and Killarney. The works have been timed so as not to interfere with the height of the tourist season.
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Some €107 million is being invested in Co Kerry by NBI, with half of the 28,000 properties ready for internet connections with the provider of their choice.
Mr Malone said the roll-out will mean rural areas no longer lag behind others, saying the National Broadband Plan is often “compared to rural electrification”.
“There will be better service in the Black Valley in a few months than in Ballsbridge and that is the reality,” he said. “The impact on residents, who will now find themselves on a par if not ahead of urban areas, will be huge and a step further into the 21st century than they could have imagined.”
Three years ago, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite broadband system was trialled but that pilot was limited to just one house.
Anna Downing (86) reared seven children in the Black Valley. Her youngest was born during the year when electricity arrived. Their childhoods, like others, in the valley were spent without a phone.
“We managed, but it was difficult,” she said.
The area had a larger population and more young people then. While no house in the valley is empty at present, there are just two young families now and few children.
“In some ways we had better communication,” Ms Downing said. “‘Tis a funny thing. Before the phone we’d have to go to a house to find things out.”
People from outside have bought houses in the valley. During lockdown, working from home was impossible for them without the internet. Some residents had to go back to Cork and return at the weekends
Two young men from the valley had to rent a house near Killarney to access broadband to “work from home”.
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Ms Downing, who lives at the southern end of the valley, had basic internet via a mast near Moll’s Gap but said it did not meet the standard she needed.
“The internet was great during lockdown,” she said, adding that she enjoys using Facebook and some other online services. “But you can’t beat face-to-face.”
She believes the high-speed fibre connection will be life-changing for many in the valley. “It will be marvellous for young people working from home. It will keep people here.”
Susan Tangney, who runs the Black Valley Hostel, said she was just a few months old when electricity arrived in the area and recalls a public phone box arriving in the mid-1980s and the landline in 1990s as a battery-operated system.
She said people in the valley have campaigned for adequate internet connection for 20 years and the high-speed connections will make “a huge difference”.
Nowadays, Ms Tangney said, people are “never on or off”. They want to walk in the remoteness of the valley while still being online, they still wanted to be connected, she added. “People working from home, people coming here, tourists, they all want access to the internet.”
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