Irish fixed line incumbent eir is planning to invest EUR500 million (USD566 million) in a new fibre broadband network passing 1.4 million premises, according to The Irish Times. Under the plan, every town with more than 1,000 homes will be covered by the telco’s new fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network, which is expected to offer downlink speeds of up to 10Gbps. Construction of the new fibre infrastructure is expected to start this year and take around five years to complete, with eir saying that it aims to pass around 75,000 premises each quarter.
Commenting on the plans, eir chief executive Carolan Lennon said: ‘I am delighted to announce this substantial investment of more than half a billion euro, which is a key step in the evolution of eir’s network, and indeed of the entire telecoms infrastructure in Ireland’.
Alongside the fixed line network development plans, eir has also reportedly announced a EUR150 million investment programme related to its mobile network, which it claims will allow it to deliver 4G voice and data coverage to most of the country within two years, while also allowing for the rollout of 5G services this year.