Wireless home broadband is to be trialled across several rural areas.

Vodafone Ireland says the project, with 5G capable technology, is to explore the possibility of operating a "dedicated rural wireless network."

A series of Fixed Wireless Access trials will take place this month across Roscommon, Dungarvan, Gorey and Clonmel.

The company says this will reach up to 20,000 premises.

It follows the launch of a 5G commercial test site in the Dublin Docklands last month.

It will use Ericsson 5G capable equipment to provide wireless access over the 3.6GHz spectrum band.

This will be a network dedicated to only handling broadband traffic of these fixed wireless customers.

It says: "This network could potentially allow customers receive peak download speeds of up to 500Mbps at present, increasing to Gigabit speeds in the future.

"Each trial customer will get an external antenna installed at their house which will be connected directly to a 3.6Ghz capable in home Wi-Fi router.

"This equipment will only pick up the dedicated wireless signal for this service and will not use the existing mobile network."

Speaking about the trial, Vodafone Ireland's interim CTO Max Gasparroni said: "Connectivity and connected technologies are impacting every facet of our lives today and there is a huge demand all over Ireland for high speed broadband access.

"Vodafone is driving forward with our ambition to create a gigabit society in Ireland, and this trial will allow us to look at how we can enhance and extend broadband access to our customers in the most rural parts of the country."