Pictured are (left to right) Pat O'Doherty, CEO, ESB; Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Alex White TD; An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD; Sean Atkinson CEO, SIRO; and Anne O'Leary, CEO, Vodafone at the unveiling of SIRO.

Navan to be a gigabit town

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD and Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Alex White TD today unveiled SIRO as the new brand of ESB and Vodafone Ireland’s fibre broadband joint venture company.  As part of the launch, Enda Kenny TD revealed that SIRO will employ 60 people, and a further 200 construction jobs will be supported across Ireland as part of the rollout of the network. Navan has been named as one of the first ten towns that will be part of the roll out of SIRO’s 100% Fibre-to-the-Building broadband network.

SIRO, derived from Sirius the brightest star in the night sky, is set to light up Ireland’s communications landscape when it delivers the most powerful network in the country, unlike any other broadband infrastructure in Ireland. 

SIRO is investing €450 million in building Ireland’s first 100% fibre-to-the-building broadband network, offering speeds from 200 Mbps to 1000 Mbps to 500,000 premises in fifty regional towns, revolutionising the broadband market in Ireland.  SIRO in not a retail product.  SIRO is unique in that it exclusively offers a wholesale open access network meaning that it will be available to all telecoms operators in Ireland to resell to their customers.

 

The first ten locations, dubbed Ireland’s first Gigabit towns or “fibrehoods”, to be included in SIRO’s roll-out are Cavan, Dundalk, Westport, Castlebar, Sligo, Carrigaline, Tralee, Navan, Letterkenny and Wexford.  Construction on the network began last September delivering 1 Gigabit speeds to 300 homes in Cavan, and continues this summer.  The initial phase of the project, which consists of fifty towns, is expected to be fully rolled-out by the end of 2018 with scope for a second phase that will reach 300 smaller towns. 

 

At the event SIRO also announced its interest in tendering for the National Broadband Plan later this year to deliver the optimum solution for bringing high speed broadband to rural Ireland.  Backed by two of Ireland’s leading companies – Vodafone and ESB – SIRO already has access to €450 million in funding to roll-out the first phase of the project, with additional funding available for future investment and further phases. 

 

SIRO’s 100% fibre-to-the-building broadband network will be deployed on ESB’s existing overhead and underground infrastructure, ensuring a fast and cost efficient roll-out to every county in Ireland and reversing the digital divide between the capital and regional towns.  SIRO’s key differentiator is that it is a custom built 100% fibre optic service powered by light, making it different and better than any other broadband infrastructure in Ireland, with no copper connection at any point in the network.