What is SIRO?

SIRO is a joint venture company between the ESB and Vodafone. We are building a 100% fibre-to-the-premise broadband network using the existing ESB infrastructure.  Launched in 2015, SIRO is Ireland’s first 100% Fibre First wholesale network and offer speeds of up to 2 Gigabit, the fastest speeds available on the market.

Reliability:  SIRO’s 100% fibre-to-the-premise network is delivered using ESB existing infrastructure, with no copper connection at any point in the network. For example, the signal on a copper wire drops massively over just two kilometres, whereas fibre-optic cable over the same distance is extremely reliable. Gigabit Speed: SIRO’s 100% fibre first broadband offers speeds of 1 Gigabit per second, while a copper-based network generally delivers speeds of up to 100 Megabits per second. A 25GB HD movie would take 3 minutes to download on a FTTH 1Gbps connection, but more than 30 minutes on a FTTC 100Mbps connection. Multiple Devices: Our homes are full of devices as we continue to work remotely – multiple laptops, tablets, consoles and mobiles are usually connected to the internet at once. With SIRO 100% fibre first broadband, you can connect as many devices to your broadband as you like and not slow down your connection. Future Proof: Unlike copper network, fibre-optic cables are extremely resilient to heat, humidity and extreme weather conditions, making this the last broadband connection you’ll ever need. Our Gigabit network is capable of supporting much faster speeds in the future, enabling homes and businesses to cater to evolving technologies and meet future data needs.    

SIRO was launched in 2015 with our shareholders ESB and Vodafone committing €450m to connect the first 50 towns.  The two shareholders have complementary skill sets. ESB was a pioneer in electrifying Ireland and have unparalleled knowledge of large-scale engineering projects. Vodafone is Ireland’s leading mobile telecoms operator, with over a million customers and world-leading expertise in the transmission of data. These two companies enable SIRO to build a regional 100% fibre-to-the-building network, the first of its kind in Ireland. In 2021, we have received further investment of €620m into the expansion of our network to 770k homes and businesses across 154 towns.

SIRO’s footprint already spans across 26 counties and extends to over 515,000 homes and businesses. We now plan to extend our network to cover 154 towns bringing our total coverage to 770,000 premises. While a full list of our new towns is not yet available, we recommend signing up for our monthly updates at siro.ie/register-your-interest to be kept up to date with our rollout plans.