SIRO, the wholesale broadband operator building Ireland’s only 100% fiber-optic broadband network, has announced details of a €20 million investment programme in Meath. Encouraged by the success of its Navan rollout, where services are already live, SIRO now announces eight new towns for Meath, Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal Damien English, has announced.
SIRO will connect Ashbourne, Dunshaughlin, Ratoath, Trim, Dunboyne, Mornington, Laytown and Bettystown to its Fibre-to-the-Building network. As a result, services powered by SIRO will be available to 21,000 homes and business in the county.
Minister English stated: “I have been actively advocating in Government for plans to help accelerate the rollout of high speed broadband across the country, so it is brilliant to see eight new towns in Meath get access to what is regarded as the international gold standard for broadband. Towns like Trim will now be on a par with cities like Tokyo and Hong Kong for broadband connectivity, so the possibilities are endless in terms of residents benefiting from the latest online services and businesses gaining a competitive edge.”
Jackie Maguire, chief executive officer of Meath County Council, added: “One of the key aims of Meath County Council’s digital strategy is to help boost the economic and social development of the county through improved digital capabilities. The wider rollout of SIRO’s 100% fibre-optic broadband network, which will now reach nine towns in the county, illustrates how we are delivering on that promise. As a result, we will be able to attract further investment to the county, make remote working a more attractive option for people commuting to work and make innovative services like video consultations with GPs a real possibility.”
John McManus, SIRO Build Director, concluded: “We’re delighted to broaden the scope of our rollout, with eight Meath towns added to our plans. SIRO is building Ireland’s only 100 per cent fibre-optic network, which means that anyone in Meath using our services are guaranteed the best broadband experience in the country as there is nothing faster than the speed of light. Considering the data demands in the future due to cloud technology and online streaming services, our Fibre-to-the-Building network means that we are future-proofing these nine towns broadband needs for decades ahead.”
As part of its expanded rollout in Meath, SIRO has put out a call to business centres in the eight towns to register their interest in participating in the Gigabit Hub Initiative, which is run in partnership with Vodafone. The initiative aims to spark a digital transformation by providing Gigabit connectivity to qualifying hubs free of charge for two years. Recipients receive a 1 Gigabit broadband connection from Vodafone which is powered by SIRO’s 100% fibre-optic network. There are currently ten participating Gigabit Hubs nationwide. The aim of the initiative is to replicate the success of the Ludgate Hub in Skibbereen which is on course to help create 500 jobs in the West Cork region over the next five years.
Using the existing ESB network, SIRO delivers fibre optic cables all the way to the building. This technology, known as Fibre-to-the-Building, has no copper connections at any point to slow down the network and delivers 1 Gigabit speeds. For context, when downloading a high definition film (4 Gigabytes) with a 10 Mbps connection, the download time is an hour - with SIRO it takes approximately 30 seconds.
SIRO is offered on an open-access basis to all telecoms retailers in Ireland, with 10 retailers offering connections to over 215,000 homes and businesses. SIRO has formed partnerships with 10 operators – Vodafone, Digiweb, Sky, BT, Carnsore Broadband, Rocket Broadband, Kerry Broadband, eNet, Airwire and WestNet – with more retailers expected to come on board as the company drives competition in the wholesale broadband market.