National Broadband Plan a ‘game changer’ as more digital nomads choose to use remote hubs

Paul Jacob, who owns the Wicklow Hub, said fibre broadband has transformed his business

Remote workers use the Wicklow Hub

Amy Molloy Twitter Email

February 24 2022 02:30 AM

The Wicklow town of Newtownmountkennedy is about 40km from Dublin and yet for years locals felt they may as well have been living in west Connemara when it came to connectivity.

The town has had its issues with internet service, but business owners who recently had their premises connected to fibre, a high-speed broadband with minimum speeds of 500Mbps (500 megabits per second), say it has been a “game changer”.

Paul Jacob started the Wicklow Hub in September 2020 and he soon learned that the “digital nomads” using his remote working space had high expectations.

“They’ve been spoiled by the likes of Facebook and Google and from having broadband in city centres, so they were used to fast-speed uploads and downloads,” he said.

The broadband service he initially acquired “did a steady job”, but when he learned fibre was coming to Newtownmountkennedy under the National Broadband Plan roll-out, he was one of the first businesses to sign up.

The Wicklow Hub connected two months ago and his business has been transformed.

“The first question anyone asks if they have moved to Wicklow and they’re having existing problems with their broadband service, is: ‘What is your broadband like?’

“When we say we’ve got fibre, we don’t have to explain anything else to them. That answers everything they need to know. It’s become a huge marketing tool for us to promote the place and it’s huge security for our customer base.”

Freelancers, entrepreneurs and remote workers who need a break from the home office all avail of the Wicklow Hub.

People in the video production industry in particular have noticed the difference in the speed of uploads.

“Before, if you had someone uploading video content, it probably would have zapped the service from everyone else in the hub, but that’s no longer an issue,” he said.

“We have a growing number of companies who are actually taking spots in the hub for their employees. We’ve a Limerick-based company that, because of the ability to employ people from a wider area, they have employed some staff from the Wicklow area.

“We also have a pharmaceutical company in the UK which has taken a space for its staff as they need a European base after Brexit.”

Despite starting a remote working hub in the middle of the pandemic, Mr Jacob doesn’t believe working from home is the future.

“The biggest problem for remote hubs is nobody knows how it is going to work out in terms of the employee or employer paying for the hub. A lot of employees are too nervous to ask their employer, but an employer must provide a safe place to work.

“Working from home was an emergency exercise carried out in a time of an emergency. The employee working from the house brings a huge amount of insurance issues as employers still have a fundamental responsibility to ensure a safe place of work – and I’ve been made aware of some test cases in that regard.”

Mr Jacob also runs another business, which employs around 75 staff who are mostly working from home.

Some have encountered broadband issues, which he says is hard to fathom considering the town is just off the N11 and close to the capital.

“We’ve always had two types of broadband. We’ve always had cable-based broadband, and we’ve always had a mast-based back-up system as well as you couldn’t rely on the one system.

“Before 2016, the service was terrible. Even though we’re just off the N11, we might as well have been in west Connemara, it was that kind of rural experience.”

The roll-out of the National Broadband Plan has been hit with lengthy delays due to the pandemic and planning issues.

Mr Jacob’s Wicklow Hub was one of the first premises to be connected.

He said that while he would have liked it to happen a bit sooner, the process was relatively hassle-free.

In Wicklow, there are more than 15,000 premises in the intervention area for the national broadband roll-out, including homes, farms, businesses and schools.

The success of the Ludgate Hub in Skibbereen, Co Cork, has inspired others across the country to try to replicate a similar model.

Meanwhile, a new subsidy to help cover the cost of using remote working hubs is on the way. It will be a form of credit, whereby the more remote work a person does, the more free hub time they will get as a bonus.

Social Protection and Rural Development Minister Heather Humphreys revealed there would be a “credit” after being asked about possible supports for those using the hubs, which typically charge €10-€15 for a work station per shift.

Mr Jacob said hubs had become “the new way of working” and said any Government support would be welcome. “With better broadband it’s possible. It’s hard to think we once relied on dial-up,” he added.