The one-line version: NBI is a wholesale network, not a shop. If the map says your house is passed, you order from a retailer. If it says coming, you pre-order and use wireless or satellite until the engineer books. You never pay NBI.
What NBI actually is
National Broadband Ireland (NBI) is the designated wholesale operator for Ireland’s National Broadband Plan. The State contracted it to build fibre-to-the-home in the intervention area — rural and hard-to-reach premises that commercial networks (Open Eir, SIRO, Virgin) would not cover on their own. It is public-policy infrastructure sold through private retailers, not a consumer broadband brand.
That is why a farm in Leitrim and a one-off house in West Cork can get the same class of full fibre a town estate already has, and why the invoice still says Sky, Vodafone, Digiweb or Pure. The glass is NBI’s. The contract is the retailer’s.
| Fact (August 2026) | The number |
|---|---|
| What it is | Wholesale rural FTTH for the National Broadband Plan intervention area |
| Who you buy from | 50+ retailers. Not NBI. |
| Premises passed | 500,000+ — about 89% of the intervention area |
| Retail speeds | Typically 500 Mb or 1 Gb+, often symmetrical depending on the retailer |
| Who fits the ONT | NBI’s engineer. The retailer supplies the router. |
You don’t buy from NBI
This is the bit the ads skip, and it is the same rule as SIRO. NBI does not publish a household tariff. It does not send a van with an NBI logo on the side to sell you 500 Mb. It sells access to retailers, who then sell you a plan, a router and a phone number for faults.
Once the drop is in, switching retailer is an ordinary ComReg switch on the same wholesale line — not a new dig. Compare contracts, not cables. Walk through the process in how to switch broadband.
How far the rollout is
As of August 2026 NBI has passed more than 500,000 premises — about 89% of the intervention area. “Passed” means the fibre is in the locality and the premises can be ordered, not that every house already has an ONT on the wall. Connection always lags pass: survey, wayleave, and the engineer diary sit in between.
The remaining premises are the awkward ones — long private lanes, delayed surveys, or build stages still in flight. A neighbour on fibre is a clue, not a guarantee. The map is the source, not a Facebook comment. For dates and what to do in the gap, use when is NBI coming.
How to read the NBI map
Check the Eircode on NBI’s map (nbi.ie), then confirm with a retailer’s checker — they sometimes lag a week. Our check broadband by Eircode page is the wider checklist (ComReg Compare, SIRO, Virgin, 5G). Typical NBI statuses:
| Map status | What it means | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Passed / available | Wholesale fibre can be ordered for that premises | Pick a retailer and order. Install is NBI’s engineer. |
| Coming soon | A rollout window, not a booked appointment | Pre-order / register. Use a leave-anytime stopgap if you need internet now. |
| Connected | An ONT is already on the premises (you, or a previous occupier) | Order a retailer on the existing drop — usually no new dig. |
| Not in the intervention area | Commercial networks are supposed to serve you | Look at Open Eir, SIRO or Virgin — not NBI. |
Passed is not connected. A “fibre is here” leaflet still needs a retailer order and an NBI appointment. If the map is a no, NBI cannot sell you a line that does not exist — see best rural broadband for wireless, 5G and satellite in the meantime.
Speeds: 500 Mb to 1 Gb+
NBI is full fibre to the home. Retailers typically sell 500 Mb and 1 Gb (and some gigabit-plus tiers). On this network that is not the old FTTC trick: there is no copper from a green cabinet to the door. Upload is the tell — Digiweb’s NBI 500 and 1000 are listed as symmetrical 500/500 and 1000/1000 in our August 2026 dataset; Sky’s advertised 500 Mb and 1 Gb still list 100 Mb up even when the wholesale line could do more. Read the plan, not the word “fibre”.
For most households 500 Mb is enough; take 1 Gb when the extra is cheap (Vodafone often prices them the same) or when the house is full of simultaneous uploads. We do not publish fake speed-test tables. After install, test on Ethernet through the ONT before you blame the Wi-Fi. If you are not getting the advertised tier, see not getting advertised speed.
Pre-order before the pole is live
When the map moves your Eircode to “coming soon”, two things are worth doing immediately: register the premises on NBI’s own interest list, and ask a retailer whether they will take a pre-order. Pre-order means they queue the wholesale request so you are not starting from zero the morning the status flips to passed.
It does not lock a calendar week. Surveys, wayleaves on a long avenue, and busy engineer patches still sit after “passed”. Do not sign a 24-month wireless contract “until fibre arrives” unless you can leave when it does — the early-termination fee will land the same week as the ONT. Prefer rolling 5G or Starlink, then switch.
The install, step by step
The brand you pay is not the crew that pulls the glass. NBI’s engineer does the drop. The retailer activates the service and posts or delivers the router.
- Confirm the Eircode is passed on the NBI map, then on the retailer’s checker.
- Order from a retailer — not from NBI. 14-day cooling-off still applies on a distance sale.
- Wholesale order and survey. NBI looks at the pole or chamber, the length of the drop, and whether anything needs a wayleave (common on long private lanes).
- Appointment. An NBI engineer runs fibre to the house — usually aerial from the nearest pole, sometimes underground. Typical visit is a few hours; the wait for the slot is the slow bit.
- ONT. A small optical box is fitted, often on an external wall with a cable inside, or at a convenient internal point. That box is NBI’s. Do not bin it if you switch retailer later.
- Router. Plug the retailer’s router into the ONT (WAN). Wi-Fi dead zones are a house problem, not an NBI problem — see Wi-Fi dead zones if the back bedroom is still on one bar.
Faults: the retailer is your first call. They escalate to NBI when the problem is the wholesale line or the ONT. A Saturday outage is why the “who answers the phone” column in the table below is not decoration.
Major NBI retailers
More than 50 retailers can sell NBI. These are the names rural searches actually hit, with August 2026 intros from our dataset. Same NBI glass; the difference is the contract. Eir is on the list because people assume the incumbent sells it — it does not.
| Retailer | Sells NBI? | Plans we list | Intro / thereafter | Why they show up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digiweb | Yes — our NBI specialist | HyperPulse NBI 1000 · 12 months; NBI Fibre 500 · 12 months | €44.95 → €55 €49.95 → €55 | Irish-owned; HyperPulse 1000 is often better value than their own 500. Switcher.ie 2026 Best Alternative Network. |
| Sky | Yes | 500 Mb Ultrafast Plus · 12 months (sold on Open Eir, SIRO and NBI) | €27.99 → €50 | Often the cheapest 500 Mb year-one bill. Watch thereafter and any annual rise. TV only pays if you would buy Sky anyway. |
| Vodafone | Yes | 500 Mb full fibre · 12 or 24 months; 1 Gb full fibre · 12 or 24 months | €40 → €55 (500 Mb and 1 Gb often the same) | Useful if you already pay Vodafone. Take the gig when it is the same €40. Also sells 5G home as a bridge. |
| Pure Telecom | Yes | Pure Fibre 500 · 12 months; Pure Fibre 1000 · 12 months | €50 → €60 €70 → €80 | Irish independent; often no built-in April hike. Thereafter steps up, it does not double. Human on the phone. |
| Eir | No — Open Eir only | Eir retail is Open Eir FTTH/FTTC and 5G, not NBI | N/A on NBI | If the map says intervention area, do not order Eir for that fibre. Eir is the shop for commercial Open Eir outside NBI. |
Prices move. Confirm the live quote at the Eircode and read the one-pager of costs. Full ranking of retailers, not networks: best broadband in Ireland.
While you wait
Passed-but-not-connected, or still “coming soon”, is a different product problem. You need something that works this week and that you can leave when NBI’s engineer is booked.
- Imagine — rural wireless and 5G home, leave-anytime on the 5G plans we track, price freeze on selected tariffs to December 2030.
- Three 5G home — plug-in router, no fibre diary. Speeds follow the mast.
- Starlink — rolling monthly if there is no mast and you can see the sky. Cancel when the ONT is booked. Dearer than NBI 500 once the pole is live.
None of those beat NBI fibre on upload, latency or evening consistency. Use them as a bridge. The longer guide is best rural broadband in Ireland; the date-and-map companion is when is NBI coming.
How this fits the other Irish networks
NBI is rural intervention FTTH. SIRO is town FTTH on ESB poles. Open Eir is the commercial incumbent (FTTH and leftover FTTC). Virgin is its own cable footprint. One Eircode gets one of those, sometimes two — never “whatever brand you like”. The comparison page is Open Eir vs SIRO vs NBI vs Virgin.
