Newbridge Town Hall
Over 17,000 Kildare homes and businesses to have access to SIRO’s Gigabit Broadband
SIRO, the wholesale broadband operator building a 100% fibre-optic broadband network in 50 towns nationwide, today announced that over 17,000 homes and businesses in Kildare – 8,000 in Newbridge and 9,000 across Naas, Sallins, Kill and Johnstown – are to have access to its 1 Gigabit (1,000Mbps) broadband network. The company outlined its updated plans to roll-out its network across Kildare at a public event today at The Keadeen Hotel, Newbridge, in association with County Kildare Chamber of Commerce.
Services are now live in Newbridge, allowing 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. Construction is now also underway in Naas, with services expected to go live in areas including Alymer Park, Monread Heights, and Woodlands East by the end of the year, before work commences in Sallins, Kill and Johnstown in 2018. Construction across Kildare is expected to be completed by the end of Summer 2018.
Cllr Martin Miley, Mayor of Kildare said:
“Fibre broadband is a key component for developing the Smart Economy in Newbridge and this initiative will put Newbridge and shortly to come, Naas, Sallins, Johnstown and Kill, in the same league as Tokyo and Hong Kong for broadband connectivity. This is vital for boosting the local economy, given the necessity of high speed broadband for attracting foreign direct investment. SIRO’s arrival is a welcome development and shows how we are delivering on our Local Area Plans and indeed the County Kildare Development Plan”.
Opening the event County Kildare Chamber CEO, Allan Shine said:
“We welcome the announcement by SIRO that it will deliver a 100% fibre broadband network to Newbridge, Naas, Sallins, Johnstown and Kill. The existence of leading communications infrastructure is vital to businesses in both these towns, supporting their future growth and development. The Chamber’s vision is to make Kildare the location of choice for existing and potential business enterprise. SIRO’s arrival will ensure that this vision is further cemented and we can continue to seek to attract businesses to invest in these towns.
“County Kildare Chamber continues to call for investment in broadband infrastructure. Ireland currently has the second slowest broadband speeds in Europe. This investment will ensure that businesses become more competitive and the need now is to ensure that all towns in Kildare can access high quality broadband.”
Stephen O’Connor, Director of Corporate Affairs at SIRO, said:
“SIRO’s network which is 100% fibre optic, without the need for copper, will deliver a 1 Gigabit connection directly to these homes and businesses in Newbridge, Naas, Sallins, Johnstown and Kill. This will have a digital transformation on these towns and villages, enabling businesses to compete online with their international peers, as well as giving residents access to the latest online services in areas like education and remote working. Having the same Gigabit connectivity as a city like Tokyo will futureproof Newbridge, Naas, Sallins, Johnstown and Kill’s digital demands for decades to come.”
SIRO’s Fibre-to-the-Building technology is recognised as the gold standard for broadband connectivity internationally. This means that the internet experience of Kildare will be transformed, catapulting towns and villages in the county into the international leagues for broadband connectivity creating a platform for future economic development in the region.
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.
SIRO is offered on an open-access basis to all telecoms retailers in Ireland. SIRO has formed partnerships with Vodafone, Digiweb, Carnsore Broadband, WestNet, Rocket Broadband, Kerry Broadband, Sky Ireland and Airwire, and with more retailers expected to come on board as the company drives competition in the wholesale broadband market.
The SIRO network now covers 120,000 premises, with services now live or under construction in 25 towns across the country including Dundalk, Carrigaline, Sligo, Letterkenny, Tralee, Cavan, Wexford, Skibbereen, Drogheda, Mullingar, Portlaoise, Ennis, Castlebar, Westport, Limerick, Newbridge, Carlow, Swords, Balbriggan, Bray, Greystones, Athlone, Killarney, Shannon and Mallow.