From left: Siro CEO Sean Atkinson and European Commissioner for agriculture and rural development, Phil Hogan. Image: John Allen Photography
Vodafone and ESB joint venture Siro claims to have passed 36,500 fibre-to-the-home premises as the race against Eir intensifies.
The latest claim by Siro puts it slightly in the lead against Eir, which yesterday revealed it had 34,000 homes and businesses with access to fibre to the home (FTTH).
Siro is reportedly passing 10,000 premises per month and is targeting 200,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2017.
‘We are now Ireland’s largest FTTH provider and are on our way to establishing Siro as Ireland’s new national telecoms infrastructure’
– SEAN ATKINSON
Eir plans to connect 322,000 homes and businesses, mostly in rural areas, to FTTH by the end of 2017, bringing its total fibre-connected broadband base to 1.9m premises.
Both Eir and Siro are shortlisted, along with E-net, for the National Broadband Plan, with contracts expected to be decided between mid and late 2017.
The Gigabit society
Siro is using existing ESB infrastructure to bring 1Gbps services to 50 towns around Ireland and some 500,000 premises in 2018.
The company is a €450m joint venture between ESB and Vodafone.
It also has become the first Irish operator to be admitted to the influential FTTH Council.
“Despite beginning construction just over a year ago, we are now Ireland’s largest FTTH provider and are on our way to establishing Siro as Ireland’s new national telecoms infrastructure,” said the CEO of Siro, Sean Atkinson.
“We are now passing 10,000 premises per month and will speed up our roll-out over the next year. We are already starting to see the impact that Siro is having, with initiatives like the Ludgate Hub illustrating how gigabit connectivity can spark a digital transformation in towns like Skibbereen.
“Siro is the only Irish operator to be admitted to the FTTH Council, which organises today’s ‘Gimme Fibre day’. When the Council presents its reports on FTTH performance across the EU, Ireland is not even included in the graph because our broadband is still delivered over ‘the last mile’ by copper and coaxial cable.
“The EU published its revised rules for telecoms investment last month, prioritising fibre investment as a means to achieve ‘the EU Gigabit society’. We want to change the conversation and the market in Ireland away from legacy copper networks to future-proofed 100pc fibre instead,” Atkinson said.
