Athlone Roll Out
Athlone Now Powered By SIRO’s 100% Fibre Optic Gigabit Broadband Network
SIRO, the ESB and Vodafone joint venture delivering 100% Fibre-to-the-Building broadband network, will update Westmeath County Council (Athlone Municipal District) today on the roll-out of their 1 Gigabit (1,000Mbps) broadband network in Athlone. SIRO’s Gigabit connectivity will allow residents and businesses to avail of broadband that is three times faster than the best service available in Dublin (350 Mbps) and 10 times more powerful than the fastest average internet speed in Ireland.
SIRO’s rollout has commenced in the Bushfield / Cornamaddy / Woodville estates (Blackberry Lane, Drunnaconn, The Orchard, & Coill Ur) and also in the Garrycastle area. When construction is completed approximately 8,000 homes and business premises in Athlone will have access to SIRO’s 100% fibre-optic broadband network. As SIRO is an open access wholesale provider, customers will purchase broadband services from one of SIRO’s retail partners such as Vodafone or Digiweb when service goes live in November.
SIRO’s Fibre-to-the-Building technology is recognised as the gold standard for broadband connectivity internationally and is 100% fibre-optic, with no copper at any point to slow it down. This means that the internet experience of Athlone will be transformed, catapulting the town into the international leagues for broadband connectivity creating a platform for future economic development in the region.
Stephen O’Connor, SIRO Director of Corporate Affairs, said:
“Gigabit connectivity will be as transformative for Athlone as the rollout of electricity was 70 years ago. The internet is at the heart of everything in everyday life, whether it’s streaming a movie, talking to a relative overseas over Skype or selling a product on the opposite corner of the globe. By having the same Gigabit connectivity as a city like Tokyo means that Athlone will experience the latest advances in areas like online education and entertainment, and entrepreneurs can bring their ideas to life and trade effortlessly across the world.”
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, downloading a high definition (HD) film of 4 GB (Gigabytes) with a 10 Mbps connection takes an hour – with SIRO it takes 30 seconds.
The SIRO network now covers 85,000 premises, with services now live in 16 towns across the country including Mullingar, Westport, Castlebar, Dundalk, Cavan, Carrigaline, Sligo, Letterkenny, Tralee, Wexford, Drogheda, Portlaoise, Newbridge, Limerick, Ennis and Skibbereen with build advanced in a further 5 towns (Carlow, Swords, Balbriggan, Bray & Greystones).