Eircom connects 100,000th NGB customer


22 Jul 2010

Eircom said this morning that the 100,000th customer has been switched over to its next- generation broadband infrastructure as the company works towards making 1m homes capable of the technology as part of a €100m investment.

In March, Eircom said it would upgrade broadband users to eight times faster speeds than the lowest broadband service for free over the coming months, and the plan is to ensure that 1m people can receive 8Mbps broadband by the end of the year.

CEO Paul Donovan said that Eircom’s entry-level 1Mbps broadband will automatically move to 8Mbps and that broadband customers on 1Mbps, 3Mbps and 7Mbps broadband will be upgraded for free. The new speeds will be initially available in Dublin but the upgrade will be extended to all major urban areas, including Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford by the end of the year.

So far, 100,000 homes have been switched over to the new infrastructure and the 100,000th subscriber was Brendan McLoughlan from Athlone, Westmeath. Eircom rewarded McLoughlan with a free laptop, a PlayStation 3 console, an Apple iPod touch and a 14-megapixel camera.

“We are ahead of schedule with our next-generation broadband roll out programme and we will continue to work extremely hard to improve the broadband experience for our consumer and business customers in Ireland this year,” said Emer Kennedy, acting chief commercial officer at Eircom.

“We have had very positive feedback about next-generation broadband and this is a significant milestone for us as we progress on the road to providing our customers with further fibre-based broadband products and services,” Kennedy said.

Eircom is rolling out next-generation broadband on a phased basis and has enabled a total of 68 exchanges so far, serving residents in counties Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Westmeath, Wicklow, Louth, Carlow, Laois, Kilkenny, Offaly, Wexford, Limerick, Clare, Mayo and Donegal.