The members of Ballina Electoral Area committee were given a briefing by Niall Beirne of E-Net on the metropolitan area network in Ballina. Mr Beirne told the members that Ballina currently has three companies signed up to the MAN, the Department of Environment, Hollister, and Thomas Crosbie Holdings. The network of fibreoptic cables which runs under the town was installed as part of a national programme of 27 towns in 2003 and is owned by the local authority but operated by E-Net, which sells access to the MAN to third party telecom companies such as Smart Telecom, Verizon, and BT which are operating in Ballina at present.
Mr Beirne told the members that the MAN was aimed at small to medium businesses and large corporations and not at home users as connecting to the MAN is very costly and it is aimed at high volume usage customers.
After questions from the councillors on the cost of connection and the possibility of schools getting connected to it, Mr Beirne informed them that “connection costs €7,500 to the MAN and the companies who get connected to it would need to have a telecommunications bill of about €1,000 per month to make it economically viable for them to connect to it.” Mr Beirne also went on to tell the councillors that the MAN should be used by the town to try to entice foreign direct investment to Ballina, with the MAN’s backhand support fibreoptic connection to Dublin making Ballina a very enticing location for investors in the future.
