Rural Ireland has taken high-speed broadband to its heart as it emerged that take-up of the new network is vastly ahead of Government ­predictions – with 300,000 premises scheduled to be connected by December 31.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company responsible for delivering the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP), said 50pc of premises are now ready to connect to the network, with high-speed fibre broadband having transformed the economic potential of rural areas.

Tens of thousands of rural-based workers are now able to work ­remotely on a full- or part-time basis because of high-speed internet access.

The project has involved laying 42,000km of fibre cable across Ireland – enough to circumnavigate the Earth.

NBI revealed that of the 564,000 homes in the special intervention area – a zone that the Government decided was vital to have high-speed broadband access for strategic national economic and social reasons – there are now 283,639 connected or in the process of being connected with fibre cabling.

Those 283,639 premises include homes, farms and businesses.

There are 91,739 premises that have already ordered NBI fibre broadband and are now connected.

NBI said the average take-up rate is well ahead of projections and international comparisons. The connection rate has reached 50pc in areas where the network has been live for the longest.

Almost 93pc of premises – 525,649 homes, farms and businesses – have now completed the survey stage of the programme.

Reporting on:independent.ie