From left: Ryan Ding, executive director of the board and president of the carrier business group of Huawei, with Sean Atkinson, CEO of Siro, at UBBF 2017 in Hangzhou, China. Image: Siro
With 100,000 premises already passed, Siro presses on with plans to light up Irish homes and businesses with fibre.
Fibre broadband player Siro has agreed a €25m contract with Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to deploy end-to-end fibre equipment and technology in its phase-one deployment to 50 Irish towns.
The contract was announced at Huawei’s Ultra-Broadband Forum (UBBF) 2017 in Hangzhou today (19 October) where Siro CEO Sean Atkinson is a keynote speaker.
‘Research has shown there is a direct link between improved broadband connectivity and improved economic performance’
– RYAN DING
“We are working with Siro to design a network that will meet the requirements of local communities and businesses,” said Ryan Ding, director of the board and president of the carrier business group at Huawei.
“As a global ICT business, we invested over $11bn into research and development globally last year, and this means we are helping Siro to deliver a world-leading fibre broadband solution.
“Research has shown there is a direct link between improved broadband connectivity and improved economic performance, and we look forward to working with Siro on what is a nationally significant broadband roll-out.”
Siro is a €450m joint venture between Vodafone and ESB, and it aims to pass 500,000 premises in 50 towns around Ireland by 2018. Over the course of 2017, Siro said that it will invest €150m to facilitate the roll-out of broadband.
The company recently stepped away from the Irish Government’s National Broadband Plan and said it will instead focus on its plan for the 50 Irish towns.
100,000 homes in 25 towns passed
Siro claims to have already passed 100,000 homes in 25 towns with fibre.
The company said that Huawei’s 100pc fibre optic technology is key to its plans to deliver a future-proofed broadband solution to 500,000 premises.
As part of the deal, Huawei is already providing the equipment for the first phase of the build. Huawei is also the Siro build partner in Athlone, delivering fibre to more than 8,000 homes and businesses.
“This contract is an important milestone in providing best-in-class, 100pc fibre optic broadband to consumers and businesses in Irish towns,” said Atkinson.
“With over 100,000 homes passed and very encouraging early take-up rates, Siro is meeting the demand of Irish homes and businesses for a new communications network for the 21st century. The Huawei technology is a key component to deliver a service to customers that is, quite literally, the speed of light.”
Using the existing ESB network, Siro is delivered through fibre optic cables, which run alongside existing electricity connections, 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 1Gbps download and upload speeds.
Siro has already forged wholesale partnerships with Vodafone, Digiweb, BT, Enet, Carnsore Broadband, Skytel and Westnet to sell its services.
