Digital connectivity - or ‘smart infrastructure’ or ‘digital infrastructure’ - is the utility of the Twenty-First century.

It underpins every aspect of the Modern Economy and all aspects of SMART CITIES & towns. This includes cellular wireless - 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G - and Wi-Fi, Wired (including full-Fibre cable) technologies, Internet of Things (IoT), and emerging non-terrestrial networks such as low-earth orbit Satellite.

Similarly, as innovation is accelerated by new and improved Technologies - including 5G, AI, Machine Learning, Machine2Machine, Industry 4 and IoT - the demands on “digital connectivity” will increase.

This importance is only going to grow, and therefore demands a strategic approach to rolling-out digital connectivity.  As technology plays an increasing role in all aspects of our lives, economies, and societies, reliable and extensive connectivity in both Urban and Rural locations in the county is Essential.  

Digital Connectivity will be delivered across the State primarily through the Commercial investment of the telecommunications industry. Government will take measures to drive increased Gigabit and 5G connectivity, including complementing commercial investment in infrastructure with Government-led initiatives and through facilitating other strategic enablers.

The Government-led initiatives include:

1. the deployment of Gigabit network services through the National Broadband Plan’s (NBP) State-led Intervention to primarily Rural areas covering circa 23% of the premises across the State;
2. ensuring 5G Spectrum continues to be made available, with appropriate coverage and deployment obligations, and monitoring of the use of this spectrum.

The Overall targets for “Digital connectivity” include:

1. All Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028
2. All populated areas covered by 5G by no later than 2030
3. Complete the delivery of digital connectivity to all Broadband Connection Points and all Schools by 2023.

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the Government’s initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland. This will be delivered through investment by commercial enterprises coupled with intervention by the State in those parts of the country where private companies have no plans to invest.

High Speed Broadband will be delivered to every premises in Ireland through a combination of -

1. Commercial investment by the telecommunications sector within an area (known as the (NBP) Commercial (BLUE) area)
2. State intervention in those areas where commercial providers acting alone will not provide this service (known as the (NBP) State led-Intervention (AMBER) area)

Table 1 below –

Identifies the total number of Premises in County Tipperary -

Based on County Statistics per National Broadband Plan (NBP) Mapping (March, 2023)

 The National Broadband Plan (NBP) Interactive Map is available at National Broadband Plan Map

To deliver the National Broadband Plan (NBP) State led-Intervention Area, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) went through a rigorous procurement process to choose a company to build, operate and maintain a high speed broadband network.

The successful tender, led by Granahan McCourt, set out detailed plans on how it would build, operate, and maintain the network. Following a rigorous assessment, the Department was satisfied that the proposal met all the required criteria and could deliver on NBP objectives. On 19 November 2019 the government signed the contract for the National Broadband Plan IA.

Following the award of the contract, Granahan McCourt incorporated a new Irish registered company, National Broadband Ireland - NBI™ - who are now designing, building and operating Ireland’s new high-speed fibre broadband network in the (NBP) state led-Intervention area. Their partners include KN Group, Actavo, TLI and Secto. A fifth Build Sub-Contractor, Gaeltec, has recently been added to the panel. Nokia is providing all the active equipment for the project and 4Site is NBI’s network design partner.

The National Broadband Plan (NBP) state-led IA is the largest infrastructural project in rural Ireland since rural electrification, spanning 96% of Ireland’s land mass. It will bring high speed broadband to 23% of Ireland’s population, (incl 70% of national total of Farms) over a seven year period.

Where possible, overhead lines and existing poles will be used to lay/hang the fibre cables. This is a sustainable approach which saves time and money as only 12% of the project will be new build.

Fibre is a way of conveying data in the form of voice, video, music, and all forms of data from one place to another. While copper was previously used in building communication networks, optical fibre cables are now the preferred choice. They are made up of bundles of very fine silica glass strands that are coated in protecting materials to make them strong and suitable for placing in underground ducts or on poles.

The first step in deploying fibre is a survey to establish the state of existing poles and ducts and review if any repairs are needed. This involves teams walking the fibre route and physically inspecting each pole and duct as well as gathering detailed information on the specific local conditions. This information is then fed back to the design teams so that detailed designs can be completed for each area.

After Surveys and the preparation of design drawings - there are a number of further stages required within each NBP IA Deployment Area to roll out the new high speed broadband Fibre network including:

• identify any repair/ make ready activities (EMR) required to ensure infrastructure is fit to lay/or hang Fibre cables –
• installation of the electronic equipment to each exchange building (in each NBI Deployment area)
• on-boarding of retail service providers (RSPs) and development of IT systems within NBI to allow operators place orders and schedule connections etc
• laying of the physical Fibre cable along the poles and UG ducts
• upon receipt of order from customer, activation of the final connection to premises

In total,    

There are over 30,349 premises situate within 22 NBP IA Deployment Area (s) in County Tipperary,    including -

• 21 Broadband Connection Points (BCPs), and 35 rural BCP - National Schools
• 19,800 homes,
• 3,971 Farms,
• 6,545 residential/ commercial businesses and

Under this project the County will see an investment of over €118M in new Gigabit network services in the county.

In June, 2021, NBI™ commenced Fibre deployment works in the county and the current Status of these works is available at https://nbi.ie/where-are-we-working/

Each NBP IA Deployment Area spans approximately 20 Km and is built around Local or Regional Exchanges housing new NBI™ OLT Equipment.  There are 3 Regional Exchanges located in the towns of Roscrea, Tipperary Town and Clonmel,  and all 22 Exchanges connect to an NBI™ Data Centre in Dublin via existing high-speed Fibre Networks (enet or/ eir)

Table 2 below – identifies the -

NBI™ build status & projected delivery Time-Frames for each of the 22 NBP IA Deployment Area (s) in the County (per February, 2023)

Note₁ : All dates provided are estimated based on the current view of NBI™

The breakdown NBI™ NBP IA Figures for County Tipperary (per February, 2023)

1. Total number of NBP State led- Intervention Area premises covered in Tipperary:    30,349
2. Total number of NBP IA Premises PASSED (per Feb, 2023) in Tipperary:    5, 805
3. Total number of NBI™ new Customer Connections (per Feb, 2023) in Tipperary:  1, 588 

(27% UPTAKE on Premises Passed)

4. 100% of Tipperary premises will be Surveyed by end 2023.
5. Over 60% or premises will have build works commenced by end 2022,   98% by end 2023
6. Over 70% of Tipperary premises will have build works completed by end 2024

Table 3 below – identifies the -

Projected NBI™ delivery time-Frames to complete the NBP IA build in County Tipperary

In Total,   when this Project is completed  –  

Over 45,000 Premises (including 30, 349 premises in County Tipperary and over 15, 000 premises in neighbouring Counties) will be connected to three (3) NBI™ OLT Regional Exchanges located in Tipperary Town, Roscrea and Clonmel.

The telecommunication sector employs approximately 25,000 people and has invested circa €3.3 billion over the past 5 years in new and upgraded networks.

Recent announcements from Virgin Media, SIRO and eir indicate that the vast majority of premises in urban and suburban areas will be covered with fibre to the home services (FTTH) with Gigabit network services being made available to all these locations by 2028.

This NBP Commercial investment will result in Gigabit Network services being made available to the vast majority of premises, in Primarily Urban and Suburban areas covering circa 77% of the premises across the State.

These new Gigabit Network (s) in County Tipperary are being delivered by  -

1. SIRO,  who were launched in 2015 as a joint venture between ESB and Vodafone with the aim of delivering the first 100% fibre-to-the-building broadband across regional Ireland. The SIRO Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Network is built using the ESB’s overhead and underground infrastructure, ensuring a fast, reliable and sustainable network.

SIRO,  has so far completed the deployment of high speed broadband (FTTH) to over 8,000 premises in the towns of -

• Nenagh
• Clonmel
• Roscrea
• Cashel

In October, 2021 SIRO announced an expansion (Phase 2) of its Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) Network and Under this Programme deployment works recently commenced in the towns of -

Thurles ² and are planned to commence in Tipperary town in May, 2023.

The Financial Investment of SIRO in the County is circa €20 million.

Note²:  Location where Tipperary County Council is trialling new Pilot technologies to support Industry and the “Dig Once” principle,  as part of the Liberty sq, Thurles Refurbishment Project - and innovative uses of existing technologies to deliver more effective public services through the Government’s Digital Innovation Programme – including the development of an extensive underground network of ducts and chambers to pilot the use of “underground Shared Telecommunications Infrastructure”

SIRO commenced the use of this pilot Infrastructure in November, 2022 and it is now available to Industry to use.

2. In 2019, EIR LIMITED commenced the build of their IFN Project in County Tipperary which plans to cover all Urban areas in the county with greater than 1,000 urban premises.  To date, EIR has passed over 20, 000 premises in Urban areas with Gigabit Network services (FTTH) in towns of -

• Nenagh,
• Ballina/ Killaloe,
• Tipperary,
• Templemore,
• Thurles,
• Clonmel and Cahir.

In November, 2022 - Eir FTTH deployment works commenced in the town (s) of Cashel, Roscrea and Carrick-on-Suir in Early 2023,  and works are Planned to commence in the “Service Centres” of Fethard, Two-Mileborris, Cappawhite in Mid 2023, and thereafter Newport at the End 2023.

Under its Commitment Agreement with the State signed in 2017 - OPEN eir recently completed the deployment of its Gigabit Network to 16,000 premises in County Tipperary.

In Total –

EIR LIMITED has to date passed c.36,000 premises with Gigabit Network Services in County Tipperary  (and when completed,  approximately 54,000 premises in the County will have access to an Eir FTTH connection) –  given an Financial Investment in the County of circa €30 million.

3. Enet “Open Access Networks” - operates Fibre optic infrastructure known as the Metropolitan Area Networks.  In total, (8) Metropolitan Area Networks have been deployed in the county and these are located in the towns of Clonmel (phase 1) and Cahir, Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel, Nenagh, Roscrea, Templemore, Tipperary Town (phase 2)

These Networks are capable of delivering virtually unlimited bandwidth to their Customers.

Enet has delivered over 130 Network connections to date and their end Users include for Schools, Bank Branches, SMEs, Credit Union offices, Gov Departments and State Agencies (Hospitals/Garda Stations etc)

Fixed wireless access (FWA),  uses Radio waves to deliver internet services between two stationary locations such as a mobile tower and a customer’s home or office.

1. Imagine - Fixed Wireless Access high-speed Network Services

Imagine continues to upgrade and expansion its WTTx network (Fixed wireless high-speed broadband services) in County Tipperary and to date - over 58,486 premises and businesses in County Tipperary are covered on the Imagine Network from 22 Mast locations both within and in surrounding the counties – refer to link:  Imagine Link

The Imagine focus is on rural areas - where NBI™ Fibre is not due to be deployed until 2025/2026

2. There are a number of Companies³ operating in County Tipperary who also Offer (FWA) Services including -

• Arra Communications www.arra.ie
• Celtic Broadband www.celticbroadband.ie
• Echoitbroadband www.echoitbroadband.ie
• Wirelessconnect www.wirelessconnect.ie
• Munster Wireless www.munsterwireless.com
• RuralBroadband www.ruralbroadband.ie
• Premier (Wireless) Broadband www.premierbroadband.ie
• Pure Telecom www.puretelecom.ie
• Bbnet Broadband www.bbnet.ie
• Orion Broadband www.orcs.ie
• Imagine www.imagine.ie
• Magnet Networks

Note ³: Other Companies maybe offering (FWA) services in County Tipperary that are not listed above.

3. SpaceX (StarLink) offer’s high-speed, low-latency broadband internet services in remote and rural locations in County Tipperary - using Emerging non-terrestrial networks such as low-earth orbit Satellite. Refer to link:  https://www.starlink.com/

A Mobile Network Operator (MNO),  also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier,  is a Provider of wireless communications services that owns or controls all the elements necessary to sell and deliver services to an end User, including radio spectrum allocation, wireless network infrastructure, back haul infrastructure, billing, customer care, provisioning computer systems, and marketing and repair organizations. There are three MNOs operating in Ireland; namely Three Ireland, Vodafone PLC and Eircom Limited. There's also seven mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) using the main networks to deliver mobile services

Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) lease wireless telephone and data spectrum from the aforementioned major carriers for resale. As of Q1 2022, the market share of MVNOs in Ireland is 13.4%.

At the end of Q4 2022 there were 8,863,983 mobile subscriptions in Ireland, including mobile broadband (‘MBB’) and Machine to Machine (‘M2M’). If mobile broadband (‘MBB’) subscriptions (355,089) and M2M subscriptions (2,818,877) are excluded ₄, the total number of Mobile Subscriptions is 5,690,017.

Note₄:  Machine-to-Machine (‘M2M’) mobile subscriptions are machines with SIMs.  These machines could include anything from SIMs inside car engines to vending machines, industrial control systems etc and a Mobile broadband (‘MBB’) device provides a mobile computer with a wireless data connection to a cellular service.

https://www.comreg.ie/publication/quarterly-key-data-report-q4-2022

In 2021, 87% of people used a Mobile Device to access the Internet (up from 73% in 2016), which corresponds to the number of regular internet users (87% of people in 2021). Source: Eurostat, European Union survey on ICT usage in Households and by Individuals.

Examples of typical Mobile data Usage include -

• Sending 1 email: 20KB
• 1 Social media update (with photo): 350KB
• Instant messaging for 1hour: 1MB
• 1 hour of web browsing: 10MB
• Streaming 1 hour of music: 28MB
• Downloading one app: 40MB
• Streaming 1hour of video: 117MB

County Tipperary is served by three Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) namely:

1. Eircom Limited (“eir”),
2. Three Ireland (Hutchison) Limited (“Three”) and
3.  Vodafone PLC.

These MNOs offer the following technologies –

• 2G which emerged c1995 and support voice calls and SMS, with relatively low data speeds.
• 3G with emerged in the early 00s and support voice calls and higher data speeds than 2G.
• 4G which appeared around 2011 and support faster data speeds than 2G and 3G. A 4G network does not support traditional voice calls like 2G and 3G, but can support an Internet Protocol (IP) voice service called Voice over LTE (VoLTE).
• 5G supports new technologies, faster speeds through lower latency and higher throughput.

The telecommunications regulator “ComReg” has a Mobile Signal Checker Map that is searchable by Eircode and by Mobile Phone Operator (MNO) to see what Outdoor data services might be available in a particular area.  This map is available at https://coveragemap.comreg.ie/map.

The MNOs and the Tower Companies continue to maintain and deploy Telecoms Infrastructure in order to Improve customer availability to 2G Voice Calls, 3G Voice and Data, 4G Data services and 5G.  

Despite Improvements and Progress over the years -

Mobile phone (MP) and Mobile broadband (MB) coverage remains “uneven” with a substantial number of locations in County Tipperary offering “No Radio signal Strength” and “Poor quantitative Performance”

These Radio coverage deficit location (s) include for -

• areas of low-population density i.e. Rural locations.
• Urban / Town centre areas
• areas where local Terrain (Landscape) can obstruct radio signals from Towers.
• Areas located at the edge of an existing cell Tower

The ever-growing Customer reliance on the telecommunications Networks to deliver new and improved technologies, more capacity, faster speeds (with low latency) reliable service capability and more Infrastructure.

In order to fulfil these needs, the Mobile Networks (MNOs) together with the Tower Companies recently commenced their transition to deliver 5G services.

5G stands for “Fifth Generation” Wireless Technology, also known as the next evolution of mobile technology after 4G LTE. 5G will bring faster speeds through lower latency and higher throughput, improved efficiency and reliability, as well as increased capacity to sustain a massive increase in connections between devices and the internet.

The current 5G deployment model used by the mobile network operators is to upgrade their existing high-power Macro-cell Infrastructure with 5G-ready equipment. However,

In order to meet the emerging/ ever-increasing appetite for bandwidth-demanding services - the long-term challenge for MNOs & Tower Companies and other “Stakeholders” is to deliver “Network densification” and the resulting need to deploy additional shared 5G Network Infrastructure i.e. “Small Cell’s” in our towns, which will support/ enhance Network performance both indoors and outdoors by lessening the strain on the outdoor Macro-cell network.

It is expected that 5G technology will support new high bandwidth use cases, for example, high-definition video applications (e.g., telepresence, telemedicine and remote surgery) and enable fast-growing, high-volume Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

The Internet of Things (IoT) merges physical and virtual worlds, creating smart environments. It is a Network of billions of interconnected devices or systems (‘things’) that can be remotely controlled over the Internet. These devices collect and exchange data that can be analysed and aggregated for use in monitoring, maintenance and improvement of processes, with the goal of delivering products and services to consumers.

The world’s economy is moving towards an increasingly connected society driven by the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. The pace of adoption of these types of technologies will become the basis for long-term national economic growth. The impact of these emerging technologies will be underpinned by the robust connectivity that 5G offers.

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/activities/wifi4eu

Image

WiFi4EU is a ground-breaking initiative that promotes free access to Wi-Fi connectivity for citizens in public spaces including public areas, public buildings, libraries, and museums in municipalities throughout Europe.

The “Tipperary Wifi4EU Network” consisting of 51 Free-public wifi Access Points across 6 towns was completed in 2021 with the support of Funding from the European Commission and the Department of Rural and Community Development and is currently being –

Maintained by Magnet plus in the towns of Nenagh, Thurles, Roscrea, Tipperary, Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel

Table 4 below – identifies -

The List of Locations ₅ of Free WiFI4EU “Access Points” in County Tipperary are as follows;

Note ₅:  The “Tipperary WiFi4EU Network” was deployed with the support of the Local Chamber of Commerce and Property Owners, who kindly agreed to permit WiFi equipment to be attached to their Shop Façade facing onto the Public Street.  

The demand for this Free on-street Wi-Fi connectivity service,  first introduced in Tipperary town in September 2020 has grown Exponentially over the past three years.

• The past year saw an overall increase of 60% in the number of service users across the Network.
• For more Information re this Initiative and /or for copies of Mapping – please email broadband@tipperarycoco.ie

The Broadband Connection Point Initiative will unlock the potential in our Rural communities.

Whether that is connected to working, the creative arts, eHealth, educational support, or business support, the BCPs will be supported to provide the digital services that their communities need.

“These premises are not merely a stop-gap measure ahead of the arrival of the National Broadband Plan, it is our hope that they will instead become long-term community assets, fixtures of their communities, providing next-generation services to Ireland’s rural heartlands.”

High-quality digital connectivity offers an unprecedented opportunity to transform rural Ireland.  It will support the sustainability of rural communities by enabling more people to continue to live and work in rural locations and encouraging others to relocate to rural areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of digital connectivity in supporting many aspects of our daily lives. 

Throughout the crisis, digital connectivity helped many people to avoid becoming socially isolated;

it enabled students to continue their education through on-line learning;

and it demonstrated its potential to support economic activity through remote working and the delivery of services on-line.

Improved connectivity and digital innovation will help communities to have greater outreach.

It will support older people to live independently in their communities, but with access to more support and services through connected technologies. 

It will mean a better quality of life for rural dwellers, enabling people to access online information and resources including the provision of online services such as education and personalised health care. In the longer term, it is envisaged that many of the BCPs will act as a central point for the provision of digital services in the community.

The (NBP) BCP delivery Programme is now completed in County Tipperary – and the following Broadband Connection Points have been connected and are providing high-speed broadband services to members of the public –

1. ROSSMORE COMMUNITY HALL, ROSSMORE, CASHEL, E25D429
2. DROM COMMUNITY HALL, DROM, BORRISOLEIGH, THURLES, E41X285
3. CURREENEY COMMUNITY HALL, CURREENEY, KILCOMMON, THURLES, E41XC62
4. AGLISH COMMUNITY HALL, AGLISH, ROSCREA, E53E132
5. KILLURNEY COMMUNITY CENTRE, KILLURNEY, BALLYPATRICK, CLONMEL, E91H7W4
6. MOYGLASS COMMUNITY HALL, MOYGLASS, FETHARD, E91WK25
7. KILLOSCULLY COMMUNITY CENTRE, KILLOSCULLY, NEWPORT, V94FK20
8. KILLEA COMMUNITY CENTRE, KILLEA, TEMPLEMORE, E41T6Y0THE
9. PAVILLION, BALLINDERRY SPORTSFIELD, BALLINDERRY, NENAGH, E45 F627
10. BALLINAHINCH COMMUNITY CENTRE, ROSSFINCH, BALLINAHINCH, BIRDHILL, V94 CVC0 
11. BOHER PARISH HALL, BOHER, BALLINA, V94 EY06
12. FANURE COMMUNITY HALL, FANURE, ROSCREA, E53 AE02 
13. KILCOLEMAN COMMUNITY AND RECREATIONAL CENTRE, BURGESS GAA CLUB, PAIRC NA NGAEL, KILCOLEMAN, NEWTOWN, NENAGH, E45 YH76
14. THE APPLE CAMPING & CARAVAN PARK, MOORSTOWN, CAHIR, E21 YX33 
15. DONASKEAGH COMMUNITY CENTRE, DONASKEAGH, E34 AK24 (HSB connection to this building is “Gigabit Fibre ”)
16. TERRYGLASS COMMUNITY HALL, TERRYGLASS, NENAGH, E45 FC42 
17. BALLYLOOBY CASTLEGRACE GAA CLUB, BALLYLOOBY CASTLEGRACE GAA CLUBHOUSE, KILROE, BALLYLOOBY, E21 TA47
18. LATTERAGH COMMUNITY CENTRE, SALLYPARK, LATTERAGH, NENAGH, E45 EF68
19. GURTAGARRY COMMUNITY HALL, GORTAGARRY, TOOMEVARA, NENAGH, E45 FA43
20. LISMACKIN COMMUNITY HALL, LISMACKIN, ROSCREA, E53 Y589
21. NORTH TIPPERARY FOOD WORKS, MAIN STREET, REARCROSS, NEWPORT, V94YW08

The BCP Initiative is a collaborative effort involving the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the Department of Rural and Community Development, National Broadband Ireland, the Local Authorities and Managers of the BCP sites.

The receipt of DRCD connected hubs Funding has supported our community involvement with remote villages and the aim to develop our Broadband Connection Points into active “Remote Digital Hubs – Connected Communities”.

The Tipperary BCP Network has to-date completed a number of pilot Digital Skills and digital literacy courses.

Working with the DRCD, a number of public and private sector partners, these pilot programmes seek to upskill from no knowledge to working proficiency and to support the exploration of STEAM subjects and coding by school children and families.

“Digital literacy Courses will offer new skills to learn, work and navigate everyday life in our digital world. The skills involve the ability to use devices, software, and apps safely and with confidence”

Acquiring digital skills is as important as physical access to broadband infrastructure to enable individuals and communities to maximise the benefits of high-speed broadband connectivity. 

The internet and digital technologies are transforming the way people live and work, but figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the use of these technologies decreases in older age categories.

A number of Digital Skills Training Programmes were rolled out in the Broadband Connection Points in County Tipperary in 2022 in association with –

1. Our Kids Code and Trinity College, Dublin
2. NALA
3. Hi Digital and Vodafone and Active Retirement Ireland
4. Microsoft Ireland™ Dream Space Den 
5. KINIA and Youth Work Ireland
6. Our Rural Future: Digital Initiative Programme 2021 –Smart Skills for Farming Communities (Tipperary) in association with -

ICMSA - Making Sense of Milk Price

IFA - Agri Technology for Improved Resource Efficiency

Teagasc - Fertiliser Spreader Setup, Calibration tools, and GPS Control

Teagasc - Precision Technology Use on Farms

Tipperary County Council is continuing its Digital Skills Journey and partnering with Microsoft Ireland™ and OurKidsCode and Offering these Programmes to our Students and their Families throughout the Tipperary BCP Network.

1. Tipperary’s BCP Digital Network ran “OurKidsCode” pilot programmes in Boher BCP, Drom BCP and Rossmore BCP last year and all have turned out to be so successful down to in no small part to the enthusiasm of their committee members, local community and their associated primary schools in their catchment area. 

“OurKidsCode” is a programme run outside of school times and is open to families to participate in a four-week facilitated workshop programme and aims to improve participants confidence in computing and technology with parents learning alongside their children by participating in creative computing workshops for families of all shapes and sizes.

Volunteer Champion Facilitator Training Programme

The theme of “OurKidsCode” for 2023 is sustainability i.e. to ensure that OurKidsCode remains in the community as an ongoing offering to new families.  To be able to do this we needed to have the skills and capacity in each community to be able to deliver the programme independently as and when needed by the community. 

To achieve this, we worked with Trinity College to deliver a Volunteer Champion Training Programme in February, 2023 where ten (10) volunteers received training on how to deliver/facilitate a full four week workshop.  At the end of this training all participants now have the skills, knowledge and ability to successfully facilitate a programme in their community BCP before the end of 2023. 

2. The Dream Space Showcase - Microsoft Ireland™  do your :bit Challenge

January 2023 saw the launch of Microsoft Ireland™ do your :bit challenge in collaboration with Microsoft Dream Space, OurKidsCode and our Tipperary BCP Network supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development.

We invited our rural schools located near our BCP network the opportunity to participate in this challenge, culminating in them pitching their digital innovation projects to judges at Microsoft Ireland™ Dream Space One Microsoft Place, Dublin in June 2023.

This follows on from almost 400 primary school students involvement in Digital Skills workshops which took place in 2022 in collaboration with OurKidsCode and Microsoft Dream Space.  We have already seen Boher N.S., Rossmore N.S., Drom N.S., Newport Boys N.S., Ballinahinch N.S., Barnane N.S., Lackamore N.S., and Newport Convent N.S. take part and are now eager to learn and experience more.

3. KINIA – Creative Digital Media

Secondary school teachers took part in a one day training programme on Video making and are now skilled to deliver this in their respective schools.

For more Information re these Programmes – please email broadband@tipperarycoco.ie

At the recent National .IE Digital Town Awards, 2023 which were held in Athlone -

Our Digital Projects were declared as “Winners” in three of the ten digital categories on Offer, and including –

1. The Overall Winner
    
2. Community Digital Winner, Rossmore, Co. Tipperary- Rossmore Scratchers Rural Connectivity- The installation of a Broadband Connection Point (BCP) was a game changer for Rossmore. It enabled Rossmore Scratchers, a coding club, to provide a space for digital projects through STEAM for children and adults alike. It is volunteer-led, has diverse community involvement, a clear understanding of community needs, all of which is managed on a limited budget. A great example of a community being given the digital tools, and taking it from there
    
3. “Agri-tech Winner, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary”- Smart Skills for Farming Communities- This programme was developed to help farmers use new technologies to make their work easier, save time and money as well as improving the sustainability and profitability of their farm. 60% of farmers report that there are barriers to digital training and supports.  This project addresses that problem by providing very practical digital training in areas such as soil fertility technology; grassland management technology; tech for time and labour saving; and farm management systems and useful Apps.

These Awards recognise and reward projects with a digital element that have been created by town groups and local communities.  They promote awareness, knowledge, use and understanding of digital in Ireland by its citizens, businesses and communities. They also highlight the benefits and possibilities of digital and celebrate the digital achievements of local towns, big and small”