Loughrea businesses are being urged by the chamber of commerce to seize the opportunity available to become a fibre town.
The development of the “fibre to the business” network in Loughrea will only become a reality if more than 50 per cent of the town’s businesses sign-up, according to Chamber chairperson Keith Spain.
Local business people attended the information seminars that took place in the Lough Rea Hotel & Spa last week when they were told that for the project to be carried out, they need to sign up before August 8. This would enable construction work to start and all businesses to receive a direct fibre connection.
According to Keith Spain, the Loughrea business community realises that the superfast broadband this project will deliver has the potential to create a significant competitive advantage for Loughrea in terms of keeping, developing and attracting new companies and new jobs.
“We now have a month during which we need over 50 per cent of Loughrea businesses to commit to switch from their existing provider to Ripplecom, which is offering services over this new network. Only then will the significant investment by enet in extending the existing MAN fibre ring directly into every business happen.
“I’m confident the business community in Loughrea realises what a fantastic opportunity this is. This is only the second town in Ireland for this type of project to take place, so I’m urging every business to grab this opportunity with both hands.”
Only the second of its kind in Ireland, the FTTB network will provide a better broadband experience, eliminate bandwidth bottlenecks, and enable local businesses to fully enter digital markets and exploit online applications.
The fibre optic cables are delivered directly into premises to produce broadband with speeds of up to 250Mb per second, “making it the fastest fibre delivered broadband speeds in Ireland”.
Conal Henry, enet CEO says the signs are positive that Loughrea businesses will take up the chance.
“By building a fibre network directly into every business, we are doing something no one else has done in Ireland. This fibre network will completely replace the out-of-date copper network which has reached its end of life – remember copper networks were built to carry voice traffic and not broadband. Our fibre carries significantly more data at much higher speed without any loss in quality.
“Over the next month we are confident we can secure the level of sign-up and help make Loughrea a truly fibre enabled business town.”
