enet Partnership Agreement

SIRO and enet announced the signing of a ground-breaking network agreement between the two companies. As a result of the partnership, enet will become a SIRO aggregator enabling its customers – broadband retail service providers – access to SIRO’s 100% fibre-optic network. The two companies had already inked a deal allowing SIRO to use the enet network as an integral part of its build.

The partnership highlights the demand for an alternative telecoms network in Ireland and will drive further competition in the broadband market by giving more telecoms companies access to Gigabit connectivity. With a network of over 70,000 premises passed, SIRO is Ireland’s largest Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) operator – the gold standard for broadband connectivity internationally. enet will now connect the SIRO network to a number of additional national broadband and regional broadband retailers.

Underpinning the deal, enet has made a significant investment in the development of an automated software platform that aggregates enet’s own network as well as third party infrastructure – in this case, SIRO’s. The new platform combines qualification, provisioning, billing, ticketing and lifecycle management across both wholesale and retail services and supports large, small and specialist retail service providers in the provision of superfast broadband to end users.

Commenting on the announcement, Sean Atkinson, SIRO CEO, said:

“Our partnership with enet highlights the industry demand for an alternative national telecoms infrastructure. As we are rolling out a 100% fibre-optic network, we are not constrained by outdated copper technology, which means we can deliver the best broadband experience in Ireland. Together with enet and our other partners, we will reverse the digital divide in Ireland and future-proof the country’s broadband needs for decades ahead.”

Conal Henry, enet CEO, added:

“enet is pleased to announce this deal which complements our deep fibre network and enhances our reach to end customer premises. With SIRO providing the last mile fibre access, enet will integrate this fibre broadband service with the Metropolitan Area Networks as well as our own national fibre network to offer a full end to end offering to all retail service providers.”

Henry went on to say:

“enet doesn’t compete with our retail service provider customers, of which there are now over 70, so we want to enable them all – be they small regional players or large multinationals – to compete on an even footing and have access to the same high quality fibre footprint. This initiative enables local broadband providers all over the country to access SIRO’s fibre networks through one simple integration with enet and this in turn will allow them to utilise us as a one stop shop for all their wholesale network requirements.”

The enet partnership allows broadband retailers to target individual SIRO towns or offer services nationally, as well as delivering a more cost effective solution for smaller operators to sell Fibre To The Building services to their local area. SIRO is live in 11 towns (Dundalk, Carrigaline, Sligo, Letterkenny, Tralee, Cavan, Wexford, Skibbereen, Drogheda, Mullingar and Ennis) with construction advanced in a further 5 towns (Castlebar, Westport, Portlaoise, Newbridge and Carlow).