A community scheme in partnership with Cellnex is working to bring better coverage to rural locations with poor mobile connectivity.

Cellnex, a Spanish telecom giant with operations in the Irish market, said it has invested €50,000 in the Get Connected initiative since it launched last year. The scheme has received multiple submissions from community groups to date, covering 37 different coverage blackspot locations.

Cellnex said it worked with local communities in Laois to install new infrastructure in Ballyfin, Castletown and Vicarstown, to change previous blackspot locations to areas with “world-class mobile communications”.

The telecom giant said it fixed the coverage blackspots by using a series of unobtrusive poles and street cabinets. These are designed to be able to carry services from several mobile companies, in order to number of masts and the deployment costs.

Cellnex Ireland managing director Colin Cunningham said the company estimates there are more than 200 blackspot locations in “commercially challenging areas that need to be resolved”.

“These pilot schemes show that we have the ability now to fix existing mobile communications blackspots in these rural communities,” Cunningham said.

“However, given the low population densities, the rollout of these proof-of-concept schemes underscores the fact that without some form of financial support, it will unfortunately not be viable for the industry alone to fix all of these blackspots and deliver the required connectivity to communities,” Cunningham said.

Cellnex said that a €10m subsidy would go a long way to delivering infrastructure that can be shared by all mobile providers. The company said this is needed to bring mobile coverage to these blackspot locations, as they can’t be addressed in a “commercially viable manner”.

The blackspots that have already addressed are using a slim-line pole, which Cellnex said is a cost-effective way to deploy in these rural locations. The telecom giant said local Irish suppliers based in the Midlands collaborated with the scheme.

“Connectivity is absolutely vital to local rural economies, and we are delighted to have been able to work with the Get Connected programme and Cellnex to revolutionise the experience in these three villages and their hinterlands,” said Laois County Council director of services Angela McEvoy.

“This type of investment will allow local rural communities to thrive and will significantly benefit the quality of life for residents, as they won’t necessarily have to commute to large urban centres, given the availability of high-quality mobile connectivity locally,” McEvoy added.

In March 2021, the Government opted to make remote working a focus for its future rural development plans. Since then, it has invested in the Connected Hubs network, a national network of remote work hubs that went live in May 2021.

Last March, a small rural community in Ireland with limited access to good network connectivity came together to set up its very own fibre-to-the-premises broadband network from scratch.

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