Eircom passes 1 millionth fibre premises milestone (video)

8 Sep 2014

Eircom today passed the 1 millionth premises with 100Mbps fibre broadband, the company said. The Co Kerry town of Cahersiveen is the location of the latest milestone.

The owner of the 1 millionth premises is Alan Landers, who runs a B&B in Cahersiveen.

Eircom said its fibre network now covers half the country in terms of 50pc of homes and businesses now able to avail of fibre-based broadband.

The company is now more than halfway through its €1.5bn investment programme, of which €400m is going into rolling out fibre broadband.

The operator is one of the first operators in Europe to deploy vectoring technology, which supports fibre and copper-based broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps.

Eircom said the pace of the network rollout is faster than that of its peers in Germany, the UK and the US.

Last week, Eircom expanded its broadband rollout plan from 1.4m homes and businesses to 1.6m by 2016.

Once completed, fibre broadband will be available to every town in Ireland with a population of more than 900 people.

The rural broadband priority

“Reaching 1m homes and businesses is an important milestone – not just for Eircom, but the entire country,” Eircom CEO Herb Hribar said.

“Access to high-speed broadband across rural, suburban and urban Ireland is crucial and no one is doing more than Eircom.

“We are constructing a network that is future proofed with the capability to meet the ever-growing demands for data from customers, at home, at work or in the classroom.

“Our ambition is to provide services to as many communities and residents as possible, demonstrated by our recent commitment to accelerate and expand the rollout of fibre broadband to 1.6m homes and businesses.”

The rollout of Eircom’s broadband infrastructure to 1.6m homes and businesses by 2016 complements an ambitious plan by the Irish Government to invest €512m to ensure 1,100 villages in rural areas will be connected to future-proofed fibre networks.

“This commercial investment represents a strong vote of confidence in the Irish economy and in Eircom itself. It will significantly contribute towards achieving the Government’s goal of ubiquitous high-speed broadband availability,” said Alex White, TD, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

“The Government has firmly committed to providing high-speed services in those areas where there is currently no case for commercial investment. This is a priority for Government and for my department and will involve an ambitious build-out of infrastructure and services in rural Ireland.

“Our ultimate goal is to ensure that quality, future-proofed high-speed broadband services are available to everyone in Ireland, irrespective of where they live,” said White.

Fibre image at top via Shutterstock

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

editorial@siliconrepublic.com