Ballina and Castlebar are two of thirteen communities included in the Eircom Group fibre rollout, it was announced this week, following last year’s commitment by Eircom to spend €100 million on Phase 1 of a plan that aims to reach one million premises over the next four years.
Phase II includes thirteen communities in eight counties across the country. Work is expected to commence late this summer and will continue through to the end of 2012.
The communities include:
Ballina and Castlebar (Mayo ); Bray (Wicklow ); Drogheda (Louth ); Ennis (Clare ); Shantalla (Galway ); Quaker Rd and Ballincollig (Cork ); Limerick City (Limerick ); Rathedmond (Sligo ); Belcamp, Dun Laoghaire and Rochestown (Dublin ).
Once Phase II is completed, fibre will pass 250,000 homes and businesses within the 27 selected 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.
Commenting on the announcement, Paul Donovan, CEO eircom Group, said “We have committed to providing one million homes and business with fibre in the next three years. Today’s announcement underlines our desire to remain focused on our strategic aim to provide fibre based broadband services for Ireland. By the end of the year more than 250,000 premises will be able to avail of new services on offer.”
