Project Stratum milestone as hyperfast connectivity reaches 15k premises

Economy Minister Gordon Lyons has visited Ballymena to hear about the continued progress of Project Stratum. The roll-out of the new full fibre network, funded under Project Stratum, has reached a major milestone providing full fibre broadband access to 15,000 premises, less than a year since it was launched, to bring hyperfast broadband services to rural and regional parts of Northern Ireland.

The Minister visited Dale Farm premises on Dunminning Road, Ballymena, where the new full fibre network reached its milestone 15,000th property. Along with members of the installation team, Minister Lyons met with Dale Farm Site Manager, Diarmaid Currie to discuss what impact the investment will have in their area.

Speaking after the visit he said:

“Project Stratum represents a £165million investment set to revolutionise connectivity in rural areas by extending the gigabit capable full fibre broadband infrastructure. With 15,000 premises now going live under Project Stratum, meaning those premises now have access to full fibre broadband, this marks another major milestone for the project which was launched less than a year ago. Funded under the DUP/Conservative Confidence and Supply deal this major investment will bring hyperfast broadband services to rural and regional parts of Northern Ireland. Once completed the Project will see more than 76,000 premises across Northern Ireland being given Next Generation Access broadband speeds.

“Access to good broadband is a necessity for business, homes and organisations and I look forward to continuing to hear positive news as more and more premises see improvements in the broadband speeds under Project Stratum.”

Installation and management of the new network is overseen by Hyperfast NI, delivered by Fibrus. Shane Haslem, Programme and Commercial Director at Fibrus praised the work of those involved:

“Reaching such a significant milestone in one year of Project Stratum is a testament to the hard work and dedication of all those involved in making this ambitious vision a reality. That includes the hundreds of Fibrus engineers and construction partners on the ground, who got to work quickly from the outset and have scaled up operations so that homes and businesses were able to benefit from this transformative new network as soon as possible.

“Over 15,000 premises now have access to gigabit capable full fibre broadband which means they can enjoy speeds of up to 1Gbps. That's more than 40 homes and businesses every day, which until now had little to no access to meaningful connectivity services before. While we’re already proud of this achievement, we will continue to accelerate the roll out of Project Stratum and are well on our way to enabling connectivity to 76,233 premises by March 2024.”

For more information on the work of Hyperfast NI or to check availability in your area, visit the Hyperfast website. 

Notes to editors: 

1. Photograph caption - Left to right,  Dale Farm Site Manager, Diarmaid Currie, Economy Minister Gordon Lyons and Shane Haslem, Programme and Commercial Director at Fibrus

2. Project Stratum is a £165 million investment set to revolutionise connectivity in rural areas by extending gigabit capable full fibre broadband infrastructure to approximately 76,000 homes and businesses across the region. The broadband improvement contract was awarded to Fibrus Networks Ltd, having received funding of £150m from the Department for the Economy (DfE) and £15m by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

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