Ireland’s eircom announces broadband open access FTTH trials

JUNE 18, 2010 – Ireland national carrier eircom has announced two large scale, open access broadband fiber to the home (FTTH) trials for up to 10,000 residential and business customers in communities in Wexford town and Sandyford, County Dublin.

FTTH will be provided directly to customer premises and offer broadband speeds of up to 150 Mbps, say eircom. Open access will be provided by eircom to any other operator who wishes to participate in the project, the carrier promises.

The project represents an investment of up to €20 million, in eircom’s estimation. Work is already underway, with tenders issued to suppliers for a number of elements of the project. It is hoped that the first customers will be connected by early Spring 2011.

Paul Donovan, CEO eircom Group, said, "Today's announcement marks another important step in the company's journey towards offering fiber-based products to our customers. This investment underlines eircom's commitment to test new technologies at scale and will help determine the technological requirements and regulatory frameworks that are necessary across the whole country in support of the future economy for Ireland.

In response to the announcement, Communications Minister, Eamon Ryan said, "This announcement from eircom is yet another good news story for Irish customers. I must commend eircom for providing these trials on an open-access basis, available for all service providers.

Competition and cooperation between providers will help deliver fast and effective broadband in Ireland, and it is clearly working. I wish eircom success with these trials, another step in the move to next generation networks."

In the past two years, eircom conducted technical trials of both FTTH and fiber to the cabinet (FTTC) technologies.

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