Colt Telecom, a business telecommunications provider with operations in nine European countries, is set to invest more than £20 million (€25 million) in a fibre optic network and an Internet solutions centre in Dublin.
The investment by a major European telecoms firm will further increase competition in the domestic business telecommunications market which already hosts strong names such as Cable & Wireless, MCI Worldcom, Esat Telecom and Eircom.
Colt Telecom was issued a licence to operate in the Republic by telecoms regulator Ms Etain Doyle last month and recently secured sites for an office facility in Seagrove House and a node operation - used to house its telecommunications equipment - in East Wall, Dublin.
The company has already begun building a 20-kilometre fibre optic network at the IFSC which will soon be extended to other parts of Dublin, including the site chosen to house an Internet solutions centre.
It is understood the Colt Telecom board has not formally cleared the Internet solutions centre.
However, the company is likely to follow its standard investment model in other European countries and establish one next year.
Dublin solicitor Mason, Hayes & Curran has been contracted to find a site for the proposed Internet centre which will offer customers Internet and data network facilities.
Mr Jonathon Watts, managing director of Colt UK, said yesterday the company planned to offer telecommunications and data services to business customers by the end of the year. "We want to be in Dublin because Ireland has positioned itself as an e-commerce centre and this fits our business model," said Mr Watts.
He said the initial £10 million investment in telecommunications infrastructure was part of Colt Telecom's £800 million sterling (€1.28 billion) pan-European investment programme during 2000.
He confirmed the establishment of an Internet solutions centre would cost an additional £10 million sterling.
Mr Watts said the company would employ some 30 people this year, but this figure was likely to expand as the business developed.
The company is seeking to appoint a managing director of the Irish operation, who would most likely be a local candidate, he added.
Colt Telecom Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. It currently has operations in 22 European cities in nine countries and has operational Internet solutions centres in London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris.
