Broadband speeds of up to 24 megabits per second are being promised to rural Fermanagh as work continues on the Northern Ireland Broadband Improvement Project.

Cooneen is one of the locations where work is underway, with BT engineers laying new fibre optic telephone lines from existing exchanges to new small broadband exchanges in remote areas or to fibre nodes adjacent to premises.

The project aims to provide basic broadband in areas that have no service and to improve broadband services in certain areas where the choice is poor or broadband speeds are low.

Work began in February 2014 and all the towns, villages and rural areas across Fermanagh are due to be completed in September 2015.

The Northern Ireland Broadband Improvement Project is a collaborative investment of £23.7 million by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) under the European Sustainable Competitiveness Programme, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, the Department of Culture Media and Sport, through Broadband Delivery UK and BT.

A DETI spokeman says: “For some areas, even when improvement work is complete, there is no guarantee that everyone will be able access basic or faster broadband services due to technical limitations with the technology being used to deliver services.” He added: “The project will be delivered at an open access level providing households and business the choice of a supplier from several competing broadband companies in the area which offer superfast broadband.” Welcoming the ongoing work Sinn Fein Councillor Sheamus Greene said: “This initiative will bring high speed, affordable broadband to rural communities who have for so long struggled to get access to broadband services.

“These green cabinets will help provide high speed broadband to rural areas like Coonian; two of the cabinets are currently being installed in the [Cooneen] area near Moane’s Cross and [Cooneen] Cross. The next phase of this new technology will be rolled out soon so as to provide broadband coverage to the remaining areas that these cabinets can’t reach.

“I would like to thank Fermanagh District Council for all the work done behind the scenes over the years to lobby government departments and BT to find a solution to this long running problem for rural dwellers.” He concluded: “As rural people need to be treated in the same way as everyone else and as broadband is essential for a whole range of things from children’s homework to completing on-line agricultural forms for grants and indeed a number of rural dwellers need it for work purposes, I am glad that at last we are being taken seriously by these agencies and that solutions are being found and implemented; a small step in the right direction.” When completed, it is expected the initiative will bring more choice and improve speeds to over 45,000 premises. Further details, including an online postcode checker, can be found at www.nidirect.gov.uk/broadband-improvement-project.