(Issued 29 August 2011) eircom Group today announced the locations for Phase 1 fibre rollout. They include communities in six counties across all four provinces, as well as all of Ireland’s major cities including Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick. Work is expected to commence this autumn and will continue through the summer of 2012. The communities include:

Mervue (Galway); Douglas (Cork); Dooradoyle (Limerick); Tallaght, Ballyboden, Palmerstown (Dublin); Clonee, Co Meath; Letterkenny, Co Donegal; Swords, Donabate, Co Dublin

Once completed, fibre will pass more than 100,000 homes and businesses within the areas, providing speeds of 40 Mbps and beyond.  The upgraded infrastructure will largely use fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) technology, but some direct fibre to the home (FTTH) will be used in certain areas. 

The announcement follows last month’s commitment by eircom to spend €100 million on Phase 1 of a plan that aim to reach one million premises over the next four years.

Commenting on the announcement, Paul Donovan, CEO eircom Group, said “This is the next step in the fibre programme. We have selected locations which have a geographical reach beyond Dublin and across the country and where we believe there is a strong appetite for new services. Work will commence later this year and we hope to have the network upgrade completed by the end of Summer 2012.” 

The locations announced today are in addition to the four pilot areas previously announced. They include Wexford Town along with Sandyford Village, Priory Park and Dundrum all in Co Dublin.

Also commenting on the announcement, Chris Hutchings, MD eircom Wholesale, said “The Phase 1 fibre rollout offers our Wholesale customers an excellent opportunity to offer Next Generation services to over 100,00 homes and businesses across Ireland. We look forward to discussing the fibre rollout in more detail with our customers in the coming weeks.”

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Paul Bradley                                                                             Dearbhaill Rossiter

Head of Communications                                                          Senior Press Officer

Tel: +353 1 600 4281                                                               Tel: +353 1 600 5284

Mobile: +353 85 17 44 281                                                      Mob: +353 85 1745 284

Paul_bradley@eircom.ie                                                            drossiter@eircom.ie