Piltown in Co.Kilkenny has been selected as the overall winner at the .IE Digital Town Awards 2022.

Piltown’s Taking Charge of our Digital Future entry was shortlisted in two categories for its work in building, promoting, and managing the village’s high-speed network.

Piltown is believed to be Ireland’s first community owned and managed FTTP ‘fibre to the premises’ network.

As part of the initiative four members of the community have been trained as fibre optic technicians and a digital hub and community centre now serves 37 groups in the area.

Piltown’s prize was €9,000 as category winner and €10,000 as overall winner.

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The judging panel commended Piltown for the manner in which the local community had embraced the project, with landowners granting access to land and volunteers working to lay more than 6km of cables, training as fibre optic technicians and providing crucial expertise pro bono.

Chair of the judging panel, Joan Mulvihill, said: “The community of Piltown showed extraordinary resolve and determination in putting their town on the digital map.  The support from businesses and landowners in granting access to land, those who prepared the ground and laid the cables, every aspect of this entry is commendable.  This is truly a lighthouse digital town.”

This year’s .IE Digital Town Awards had a focus on communities and digital leaders that have adopted new ways of thinking to enhance localities through innovative use of digital tools to provide digital equity in the community, improve digital infrastructure, and enable digitisation of culture and oral traditions.

The awards scheme is part of four-year €1m investment initiative focused on digital enhancement and digital technology adoption in Ireland’s towns.

This year’s category sponsors included Western Development Commission, Connected Hubs, Vodafone, and AIB Merchant Services.

There was a total prize fund of €100,000 across seven award categories. The full list of winners can be viewed here.