Broadband restored to Athlone area as weekend work ends two-week outage

A lengthy broadband blackout in an area of Athlone, which was caused by damage from Storm Darragh earlier this month, was resolved over the weekend.

Residents in Annagh, Ballykeeran, Athlone, had been without broadband for a fortnight after the storm's strong winds damaged communications cables in the locality.

Approximately 20 homes were affected by the outage, which impacted customers of several different broadband providers. It followed on from another prolonged broadband outage in the area earlier this year.

Eir had responsibility for fixing the problem, and on Saturday there were several vans and a 'cherrypicker' on site to carry out repair works.

The broadband service began to return to the affected homes by Saturday afternoon.

A spokeserson for eir told the Westmeath Independent that the repairs in the area had now been fully completed.

"Service has been fully restored. Polling and cabling work were successfully completed over the weekend, ensuring everything is back up and running," said the company spokesperson.

Storm Darragh prompted red and orange-level weather warnings in various parts of the country on December 6 and 7, and eir said the storm had caused "the most severe telecommunications network disruption in Ireland since Storm Ophelia in 2017."

It said that, to date, over 90,000 broadband faults have been repaired, including more than 4,000 in Westmeath.

"Over 1,000 members of the open eir networks team are working tirelessly around the clock to ensure services are restored as quickly as possible. The team will continue working throughout the Christmas period, including on Christmas Eve and St Stephen’s Day, to resolve all outstanding faults.

“The company thanks its customers for their patience and understanding during this challenging time and remains fully committed to restoring services promptly," the eir spokesperson added.

"Members of the public who encounter damaged infrastructure, such as poles, lines, or other equipment, are encouraged to report it by calling 1800 245 245. A resolution crew will be dispatched promptly to assess and repair the damage."