Magnet Networks completes €9m in deals in 2009

22 Dec 2009

Fibre and DSL broadband and telecoms provider to the business and residential market Magnet Networks closed deals worth €9m across all divisions during the past year, the company has said.

Business customers signed up in 2009 include Concern, advertising agency McConnells and furniture retailer Instore.

Magnet revealed that 75pc of its new customer base are availing of speeds of 15Mbps and upward, which it says is indicative of a greater desire for higher broadband speeds by Irish citizens and businesses.

With broadband subscriptions continuing to grow and high bandwidth services being accessed over the net, Magnet’s chief executive Mark Kellett noted that the significance of quality broadband was coming more to the fore.

“With critical business processes from banking to payroll to CRM being outsourced to cloud services there is an increasing need for faster and resilient broadband and our sales reflect this,” said Kellett.

“The Irish telecoms market is highly competitive and to win business of this level is testament to the quality of the products and supporting services we offer.”

Magnet’s business division saw a growth in demand for its all-in-one IP telephony solution, as companies sought to bring down overhead costs across the board.

Magnet’s Voicenet service offers savings of between 20pc and 40pc on competing telecoms services. Kellett adds: “As many businesses continue to tighten their belts, Voicenet is the ideal solution.”

On the residential side Kellett says that Magnet has also seen more awareness around the broadband quality issue.

“We are hearing of growing dissatisfaction with other service providers as people experience a significant deterioration in speeds at peak times.

“These enquiries are coming our way because we are the only provider with a reach of over 600,000 people that can guarantee your speeds will remain the same no matter what time of day.”

Magnet says its 24Mbps DSL broadband service is currently Ireland’s fastest on offer, with a dedicated connection meaning subscribers don’t experience the speed fluctuations of other services.

Connectivity from other providers is shared across a number of users (often referred to as contention), resulting in speeds a lot less than the baseline speed subscribed to.

Kellett adds that Magnet’s fibre service, which is available to 11,000 homes, offers 50Mbps broadband and has yet to be equalled or surpassed in terms of speed.

“It is fair to say we own the speed crown and will continue to do so as long as our competitors in every other technology- be it cable, WiMax, DSL or 3G – divide connectivity amongst users.

“Our technological investment to date means we will always lead the way when it comes to quality which directly translates into superior speeds and a much more satisfying online experience,” he concluded.

By John Kennedy

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com