Wireless broadband company Irish Broadband has completed a €13m expansion of its network that has seen its geographic reach in Ireland double.
The company says the expansion future-proofs the company’s network to cope with new technologies such as WiMax.
The expansion sees the company extend its coverage to new locations like Swords and Coolock in Dublin, Summerville in Waterford and Raheen in Limerick.
It is understood that the expansion is tabled to continue for the remainder of this year and into next year.
“This investment has more than doubled the size and greatly expanded the coverage of the Irish Broadband network,” said chief executive Neil Parkinson. “The network build enables Irish Broadband to make our service available to more people and to meet the demand out there in the market.”
Parkinson said the company recognises the demand for increased mobility of internet connectivity and as a result is future-proofing the network by using the latest technologies, crucially WiMax.
“WiMax enables personal broadband — anytime, anywhere internet connectivity. The adoption of WiMax as part of an expanded broadband network already facilitates the continued success of our popular Ripwave wireless modem.”
Parkinson also hinted that Irish Broadband may be considering a move into the mobile phone arena. “The practical benefits of this technology will start to be seen next year with the arrival of the first GSM & WiMax mobile phones.”
The company, which uses its own proprietary technology, currently provides wireless broadband services in a variety of locations across Ireland. These include: Dublin City and County, Cork City, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Dundalk, Drogheda, Bray, Tralee, Ennis, Kilkenny, Navan, Carlow, Wexford, Athlone, Newbridge, Letterkenny, Celbridge, Leixlip, Greystones, Portlaoise, Killarney, Arklow, Wicklow, Maynooth, rural north/south Kildare, rural north Louth, Killaloe/Ballina, north Donegal, Oranmore/Carnmore and Claregalway.
As part of the expansion, Parkinson said that there will be a free upgrade taking place across the company’s Business Breeze product custmers.
As a result of the upgrade, users of the company’s 2MB service will be upgraded to 3MB, users of the 3MB service will be upgraded to 4MB and users of the top-of-the-range 4MB product will see an 8:1 contention ratio reduced to a 4:1 contention ratio.
By John Kennedy
