Enet to invest more than €50m in fibre networks across Ireland

Irish telecoms provider Enet is to invest more than €50 million in fibre networks across the State over the next five years.

The investment will see the company’s fibre network connect major commercial, retail and industrial zones to increase the availability of high capacity data transport for data centre connectivity, mobile data traffic and business traffic.

The project involves laying more than 45km of new fibre networks along the north and west of Dublin city, connecting all of the major business parks which are home to the various multinational companies as well as 25 data centres. This aspect of the project is near completion.

The group said the project would increase fibre availability on the route by 900 per cent and will allow for 700 terabytes of traffic.

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There will also be a new 10km network in North Dublin to provide fibre connections to more than 1,000 businesses, while a new 4km backhaul and fibre infrastructure in West Dublin will provide the ability to connect a further 500 businesses. Both of these aspects of the project are expected to be completed in the next six weeks.

While a significant proportion of the investment will be in and around the greater Dublin area, the company said fibre will be laid in other parts of the State to allow network operators and more business premises to directly connect to Enet’s telecommunications network.

The next locations on which work is to begin over the next six weeks are Thurles, Co Tipperary, and Portarlington, Co Laois. More locations will be announced in due course, the company told The Irish Times.

Enet, which is part of the Speed Fibre Group, has already expanded its Dublin Metro network by more than 18.5km between January and May this year in areas such as Rathmines, Dublin 6, and Westmoreland Street, Dublin 2.

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Speed Fibre Group chief executive Peter McCarthy said the project would “cement” Ireland as a location in which to do business for multinationals.

“We’re delighted to announce this significant new investment as it allows us to deliver the highest quality network connections in crucial commercial areas in Ireland,” he said.

“By implementing critical fibre networks to provide high bandwidth telecommunications connectivity to our wholesale customers, we are supporting thousands of businesses and consumers across the country with the network capacity they need to grow and prosper.

“By further enabling our world class telecommunications networks, this investment will also really cement Ireland’s position as an ideal location for businesses to operate in.”

The announcement follows an agreement earlier this year with EXA Infrastructure to deliver international optical network connections between Dublin and data centres in Europe and across the North Atlantic. The partnership covers more than 40 key priority data centres in Europe including Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Marseilles and Milan as well as a variety of North American routes on the EXA Infrastructure network.

Speed Fibre Group entities have a combined annual turnover which now approaching €80 million, with more than 200 staff and over 11,000 customers. Its offices are located in Limerick and Dublin.

In addition, it has more than one million customers from wholesale networks, including mobile phone users, students, residential broadband users, public sector workers and staff in multinational organisations.

Speed Fibre Group is owned by the Irish Infrastructure Fund, which manages capital for more than 20 institutional investors, the majority of which are Irish pension funds, trusts, and investment managers.