Magnet Networks is to commence trials of 200Mbps fibre broadband in the areas where it has fibre, the chief executive of the company, Mark Kellett, told Siliconrepublic.com.
Kellett says that at the moment some 12,000 subscribers access the company’s 50Mbps fibre services in Dublin and Portloaise.
He said that in three weeks’ time the company will start rolling out 200Mbps trials in a number of locations around Dublin, notably in the Sandyford and Baldoyle areas where its network covers 38 housing developments.
“It’s a big technical hurdle to overleap but our view is the key now is to anticipate future application needs. A few years ago, people would have thought you were crazy to suggest 50Mbps broadband speeds. Going forward, 1Gbps broadband speeds won’t sound so crazy in a few years’ time,” Kellett said, referring to the hotly contested Google 1Gbps broadband trial competition that attracted more than 200,000 applicants in the US.
“At the moment we have 12,000 people subscribed to 50Mbps pure broadband and in two/three weeks we will be trialling 200Mbps speeds.”
Kellett said that on the ADSL front, in which the company has up to 40 exchanges, more than 90pc of customers would now be accessing the higher tiered 24Mbps service. “They are bypassing the lower tiered services and are aiming for the higher end speeds.
Kellett went on to say that the company is researching new IPTV products that allow users to provision their favourite TV stations to their iPad devices.
“We are allowing consumers to pre-provision the channels of their choice so they can enjoy them on devices like the iPad. We are working with a couple of indigenous Irish technology companies with the view to getting them on the road to rolling out their products internationally,” Kellett told Siliconrepublic.com.
He said the company is also looking at future internet-enabled TVs that would eradicate the need for set top boxes in homes.
By John Kennedy
Photo: Magnet Networks’ chief executive Mark Kellett
