Pilot Fibre Network Goes Live
26th September 2011
Chris Hutchings, Managing Director of eircom Wholesale, with Mark Kellet, CEO, Magnet and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Cllr. John Bailey
eircom Wholesale reached an important milestone in the fibre pilot programme this week as the network was switched on and customer orders from the participating operators (Magnet and eircom retail) can now be processed.
Magnet will offer a triple play service to customers within the pilot footprint. eircom Consumer and Small Business initially will offer an upgrade to fibre services for existing NGB Business customers and will offer a fibre and voice bundle product to all customers over the coming weeks.
Work continues by the Network Access Build teams to complete the fibre footprint in the four nominated exchange areas. 11,000 premises are now connected to the network including all 8,000 premises covered in the South Dublin exchanges of Priory Park and Dundrum.
Once the build phase has completed, approximately a total of 8,000 premises in parts of Wexford Town and Sandyford, Co Dublin will be able to receive Ireland’s fastest broadband of up to 150Mbs, using fibre to the home (FTTH) technology. The 8,000 premises in Priory Park and Dundrum will use fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) technology to deliver broadband speeds of up to 50Mbs.
In addition to ultra high speed broadband, the network can also deliver Voice and TV services from participating operators.
The development of the fibre pilot programme has been led by eircom Wholesale in partnership with the Telecoms Industry on an open access basis. Implementation of the platform and products has been delivered by eircom Group Technology. Paul Doyle, Head of Next Generation Plan, Design and Asset Management, said, “I am delighted with the excellent progress to date allowing us to deliver the build phase on time and within budget by December 2011.”
Commenting on the launch of the fibre network Chris Hutchings, MD eircom Wholesale, said “The on time delivery of the new fibre platforms, using a set of Wholesale products developed in cooperation with Industry, demonstrates our ability to lead the provision of an open access fibre network in Ireland. The experience gained in the pilot will be used in Phase One of our national rollout. That programme will deliver fibre to over 100,000 homes and businesses across the country by Summer 2012 and we look forward to further engagement with Industry on those plans”.
Further details about the fibre pilot can be found at www.fibrepilot.ie.
Further details on eircom Wholesale’s Next Generation Access Programme can be found at http://www.nextgenerationnetwork.ie/ngn-access