It’s not quite gold in them there hills, but, if you look closely, there may be fibre in them there forests.

Coillte, the State forestry body, has just started to install optical fibre to its telecoms mast sites, leaving them ready for use by telecoms operators.

The semi-state, whose forestry rights are controversially slated for sale, has more than 400 masts on its land, which comprises 7 per cent of the Republic’s land area.

The first mast to get the optical fibre is in Co Roscommon, but if all goes well with this pilot, Coillte is planning to spend about €2 million over the coming 18 months on delivering fibre connectivity to the sites that telecoms operators deem to have “high priority”.

Fibre-enabled masts are important in facilitating the rollout of the next generation of networks (4G) across the country, with the ultimate vision of providing urban standard connectivity to more remote rural areas.

Coillte says it is making the investment in response to requests from its telecoms customers, who have a five-year plan to address the need for connectivity upgrades.

The company operates some of the masts itself and leases space on them but others are operated directly by the telcos.

The arrangement delivers a nice little revenue stream for the semi-state.