A multi-million pound project to bring faster broadband to many rural communities across Northern Ireland has benefited over 22,000 premises so far.

Economy Minister Gordon Lyons delivered an update on Project Stratum to the Northern Ireland Assembly, confirming more than 10,000 fibre poles had been planted and 2,000 kilometres of fibre cable installed by the end of 2021.

Speaking as he addressed the NI Assembly yesterday, 01 March, Minister Lyons said: "As a result of our continued public investment in broadband infrastructure the connectivity gap in Northern Ireland is rapidly closing at superfast levels. Once completed, all premises under Project Stratum will be able to benefit from access to gigabit-capable full-fibre broadband. It's also important to remember that the vast majority of these homes and businesses are in rural areas of Northern Ireland and Project Stratum will be transforming the connectivity fortunes of citizens benefiting from this much-needed public intervention.

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"A third of premises, mainly in rural areas, cannot access superfast speeds of 30 Mbps or above, and so delivery of gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure to these premises is truly life changing. Funded under the DUP/Conservative Confidence and Supply deal the £165 million contract for delivery of Project Stratum was awarded to Fibrus Networks Ltd in November 2020. As a result of this investment, and additional funding of £32m, along with the contractor's investment of more than £48m, some 85,000 properties will be able to connect to high-speed broadband.

"Connectivity is repeatedly mentioned to me by investors and businesses in Northern Ireland as being key for economic growth. Through investment in Project Stratum we are helping to secure the future progress and economic development for the whole of Northern Ireland."

The Minister added: "The network being deployed by Fibrus is an open access network, meaning it will attract competition from a number of retail service providers which, over time, will provide consumers with a broad range of competitively priced broadband services. The Project Stratum wholesale pricing model formed part of the contractor's bid and there is a process to benchmark these prices against comparable services in the rest of the UK, under the State Aid rules that govern the project."