Customers in certain parts of Dublin, Galway and Waterford will shortly be offered a new broadband service by cable firm NTL priced at €25 per month.
The firm, which already has about 340,000 digital television customers, confirmed yesterday it planned to upgrade its cable network to provide broadband.
The €100 million upgrade will begin immediately, enabling NTL to offer a suite of broadband products to homes and businesses that are quite different from those on already offer in the State.
NTL says it will begin offering a €25-per-month high-speed internet service capable of downloading data at a speed of 300 kilobytes per second. The firm will also offer faster internet services at 700 kilobytes per second and 1.5 megabytes per second. These will be priced at €35 and €50 per month respectively by NTL.
Subscribers will be offered free installation and the first three months for free, according to Mr Graham Sutherland, NTL's managing director for Ireland.
"It is our target to roll out our broadband network to reach 100,000 homes by the end of the year and start selling the product in July," he said. "We will continue with this constant pace of growth throughout 2005-2006."
NTL refused to reveal its schedule for upgrading its network to carry broadband to prevent rivals such as Eircom from targeting certain areas for sales.
The broadband service will be marketed by direct mail when an upgrade to its network is finished in a particular area. The upgrade work will consist of a combination of replacing fibre in NTL's core network and some overhead cabling which enters homes.
The firm's decision to upgrade its network may be a blow for Eircom, which faces its first real competition in the Irish broadband sector. Eircom is relying mainly on broadband for growing revenues and will now face stiff competition from NTL.
However, Mr Sutherland said he did not believe there would be a " bloodbath" in the broadband market as there was scope to grow the market further.
"We see broadband as a key component that will drive our revenues forwards over the medium term," he said.
