How ultrafast Internet transformed Northern Ireland’s rural towns into remote working hubs

Fibrus has launched its Northern Ireland Remote Working Index, ranking towns across the region by their suitability for remote workers.

The index methodology weighted five key metrics: housing affordability at 30%, connectivity at 25%, remote working spaces at 15%, green spaces at 15%, and transport connectivity at 15%.

Towns scored out of 10 across each category, with the top performer in each metric setting the benchmark.

Limavady has claimed the top spot, propelled by infrastructure that would have been unimaginable a decade ago.

The town benefits from 95% full fibre broadband coverage, a statistic that underscores how digital connectivity has rewritten the rules about where people can live and work in the UK.

The full top 10 is as follows:

1. Limavady
2. Strabane
3. Banbridge
4. Newtownabbey
5. Dromore
6. Crumlin
7. Omagh
8. Ballymoney
9. Antrim
10. Randalstown

Northern Ireland currently leads the UK and Ireland in gigabit-capable broadband coverage, with 94% availability, compared with 85% in England, 78% in Scotland, 76% in Wales, and 88% in the South.

This infrastructure advantage has turned previously overlooked rural towns into genuine alternatives to city living for the 40% of UK workers who currently work remotely in 2025.

Fibrus, the provider behind much of this rural transformation, has been central to the shift. The company delivered the £200 million Project Stratum contract, which brought full fibre broadband to over 81,000 premises across Northern Ireland.

Many of these properties previously struggled with download speeds below 30Mbps, speeds that made video calls unreliable and cloud-based work impractical. Now they can access gigabit speeds of up to 1,000Mbps.

Thomas Adeleaux, who works from his home in Magilligan outside Limavady as a CRO consultant with monthly London office visits is one person benefiting from the shift.

He runs bandwidth-intensive gaming sessions whilst his partner streams content simultaneously, activities that would have been impossible on legacy copper connections.

“I can work without calls dropping, can access applications for the first time,” Adeleaux said, as the infrastructure has eliminated the compromises that once defined rural connectivity.

A rural migration trend

The remote working index reveals that affordability remains a crucial driver alongside connectivity.

Housing costs in rural Northern Ireland towns run significantly below Belfast levels, whilst full fibre access matches or exceeds what’s available in the capital. This combination has sparked what property professionals are calling a rural migration trend.

Emma McNally, Head of Strategic Partnerships at PropertyPal Group, noted that there has been a shift in buyer priorities.

“We recognise that reliable broadband connectivity is increasingly becoming one of the most important factors for buyers when choosing a home,” she said.

“With the rise of hybrid working as a permanent fixture in many people’s lives, we’re seeing a notable shift towards purchasing properties in rural communities, now that the digital infrastructure has improved so much.”

A remote working powerhouse

According to the ONS, 14% of UK workers currently work exclusively from home in 2025, whilst many more split their time between home and office.

For this hybrid workforce, the appeal of rural locations with genuine gigabit connectivity has grown sharply.

Reduced commuting saves both time and money for workers, with average savings of £200 per month, making the economics of rural living even more compelling.

Fibrus has been awarded a £34.6 million contract to extend full fibre to another 9,000 rural properties in Northern Ireland that have missed out on the full fibre revolution. This Project Gigabit deployment, which began immediately, will further consolidate the region’s connectivity advantage.

Fibrus was founded and launched in September 2018 and their network now reaches 150,000 homes across Cumbria and all six counties in Northern Ireland.

That timeline, less than eight years from launch to comprehensive regional coverage, demonstrates how quickly infrastructure investment can reshape economic geography.

The question now is whether other UK regions can replicate Northern Ireland’s success.

The combination of targeted government contracts like Project Stratum, aggressive commercial deployment by providers like Fibrus, and geographic advantages has created conditions that may be difficult to reproduce elsewhere.

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