SIRO announces 6 new towns

SIRO to invest €40 million in rollout to 6 new towns by end of 2016

SIRO, the open-access broadband provider delivering Ireland’s first 100% fibre-optic broadband network to 50 towns nationwide, has announced that it will invest €40 million to expand its rollout to its next six locations – Mullingar, Newbridge, Ennis, Portlaoise, Drogheda and Carlow.

As a result, services will be live or construction work will be underway in 17 towns across the country by the end of the year – Dundalk, Cavan, Carrigaline, Sligo, Letterkenny, Tralee, Wexford, Drogheda, Westport, Castlebar, Mullingar, Newbridge, Ennis, Ratheniska, Carlow and Skibbereen.

SIRO’s 100% fibre optic broadband network is having a transformative effect in regional towns where services are live, with regional towns like Tralee and Sligo gaining the same level of connectivity as international hubs like Tokyo and Hong Kong. SIRO towns are able to attract investment and encourage more people to live and work within their local community. For example, the Skibbereen community which came together to launch their Ludgate Hub – powered by SIRO 1 Gigabit connectivity- aims to create 500 jobs in five years in the West Cork region and provide a multi-million euro boost to the local economy.

Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships, Sean Atkinson, SIRO CEO, said:

“Since we started construction in August last year, we have received a fantastic response in our roll out towns. We are delighted to add six new fibrehoods to our network build. We are now passing 10,000 premises per month and working in 17 towns. SIRO gives consumers and businesses in regional Ireland access to far better services than that available in Dublin and other cities, thus reversing the digital divide and allowing them to compete more effectively for investment and jobs.

It is our ambition to become Ireland’s new national Telecoms infrastructure. We have plans for a second phase which covers over 300 smaller towns and we are shortlisted for the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) which aims to deliver high speed access to all citizens by 2020. We believe that Fibre-to-the-Building is the only solution capable of future proofing Ireland’s needs.”

With 25% of Irish fixed broadband connections currently offering speeds of less than 10 Mbps, SIRO is a step-change in connectivity for regional Ireland. SIRO’s 100% fibre-to-the-building 1 Gigabit service is three times faster than the best service available in Dublin and over 10 times the best service available in the rest of Ireland. SIRO’s €450m network will meet the needs of Irish Internet users, now and in the future.

Using the existing ESB network, SIRO is delivered by fibre optic cables all the way to the building. This technology, known as “FTTB”, has no copper connections at any point to slow down the network and delivers 1 Gigabit download and upload speeds. For example, a high definition film (4GB) takes one hour to download with a 10 Mbps connection – with SIRO it will take 30 seconds. SIRO is offered on an open-access basis to all telecoms retailers in Ireland. Last month SIRO revealed Digiweb will offer services via its 100% fibre-optic Gigabit broadband network, joining Vodafone as its second retail partner. Discussions with other retail partners are ongoing.

1 Comreg Quarterly data, Q2 2016