Smart lands deals worth €235K


7 Aug 2007

Smart Telecom is back with a bang following its €90m revamp after having signed agreements with SAP and Galway County Council to roll out services over its next-generation network (NGN).

The company will provide E-Line network services that will result in high-speed connectivity, reliability and enhanced customer service to the two organisations, it said.

Smart Telecom will enable Galway County Council to connect all its Galway City offices to the Government VPN (virtual private network) using fibre and private DSL connectivity. This network installation which will include four E-lines with 100MB capacity. It will connect all the Galway City offices within Galway County Council including the National Roads Authority, Galway County and City Fire Services and County Hall. Smart said the E-Lan service it is deploying will provide the scalability and resilience of MPLS VPN but without the complexity and cost.

Smart Telecom has also strengthened SAP’s business operations here in Ireland with a new E-Line connection between its operations in Dublin and Belfast and by reinforcing existing infrastructure between its Dublin and Galway operations. SAP employs 800 people in Dublin, Galway and Belfast who are involved in providing support to the company’s European and US customers.

Michael Martyn, IT technical development project leader at Galway County Council, commented: “The Smart Telecom service to date is excellent and the deployment of additional services has been very smooth and have worked in close co-operation with E-net in providing the fibre services.”

Stephen Fay, IT infrastructure co-ordinator with SAP, added: “Smart Telecom has been able to provide us a highly reliable service that is flexible and scalable to meet our changing business needs.”

Both contracts are set to run for an initial 24 and 36 months respectively with an estimated value of €235,000. These are the first in a series of customer announcements within the corporate and public sector following Smart Telecom’s €90m revamp, which included €65m in refinancing and the addition of the T50 network in Dublin.

Smart Telecom is now focused on data, broadband and VoIP services to the corporate, SME and residential sectors. The total value of these markets has been estimated at €2.4bn by telecoms regulator ComReg.

Pio Murtagh, chief technical officer with Smart Telecom, said: “Based on a high-speed package design offering voice, data and video communications, the benefits of the NGN are simple. The Smart NGN replaces the multiple legacy networks with one straightforward network which results in greater reliability. This in turn results in lower operational and equipment costs which mean greater value for money for our customer. Finally, our greater responsiveness with upgrades within 24 hours enables us to provide greater flexibility and more scalable solutions to our customers.”

By Niall Byrne