Up and coming wireless broadband carrier Irish Broadband has told siliconrepublic.com that it is in discussions with Bord Gáis, the ESB and various local county councils about rolling out its low-cost, high-bandwidth service throughout the regions.
The Irish Broadband network is already up and running throughout south Dublin and the city centre and the company is in the process of rolling out services across north Dublin and surrounding counties. The company will also be rolling out its service in Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway over the coming months.
In recent weeks the company unveiled its wireless broadband services for home and business users, which it claims represents a reduction in price by 61pc or some €232 on the average monthly bill compared to DSL and leased line services.
Using easy-to-install wireless modem boxes that interact with base stations up to 12km away, Irish Broadband provides internet users with 512k uploads and download speeds from €1.15 per day, enabling home users to pay on average €35 per month and business users up to €75 per month, based on its RipWave wireless modem offering. A forthcoming system entitled Alvarian will enable Irish Broadband to offer businesses broadband speeds ranging from 1Mbps (megabits per second) up to 5Mbps for around €250 per month.
The company has acquired a fibre optic STM-1 line as well as forging Tier 1 agreements with Cable & Wireless and Tiscali, explained managing director Paul Doody.
Doody added that the company is in discussions with Bord Gáis, the ESB and Chorus about implementing its base stations at various locations throughout the country in order to speed up its regional spread as well as discussions with various local county councils. The company has already forged similar deals with RTE about hosting its base stations at strategic sites in Dublin.
Irish Broadband is a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Toll Roads (NTR). Over the past number of years NTR has been working steadily in building up alternative public infrastructure businesses where it sees deficiencies in what is on offer to the Irish public through partaking in public private partnerships and is a major investor in operations such as Celtic Waste and Eirtricity.
“We are expecting a massive latent demand for broadband in Ireland once companies and businesses realise their disappointment with DSL and FRIACO,” Doody said.
By John Kennedy
