Eircom invests €100m in broadband

Eircom is to invest more than €100 million in its broadband network and plans to offer TV services from next year, it was announced today.

The company said it would "significantly upgrade" the telecommunications infrastructure and bring faster broadband to customers by rolling out fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the home (FTTH) technologies.

A target of 100,000 premises will be included in the first phase of the upgrade, which will take place by next summer. Eventually, the company plans to bring fibre-based services to 1 million homes and businesses in Ireland.

The FTTC technology will support speeds of up to 40Mbps, while FTTH supports speeds of up to 150Mbps.

Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte welcomed the planned upgrade. In a statement this morning, Mr Rabbitte said the plan represented a "vote of confidence" by the company in Ireland.

“Ireland’s significant capacity to innovate its way through the current challenges has been further boosted by today’s announcement," he said. "These developments will help deliver competition for high speed services to consumers and boost the prospect that many more homes will be able to avail of high speed services."

In a separate announcement, Eircom said it planned to launch entertainment services over fibre, including television over broadband, video on demand, catch up TV and social media.

“Our investment of over €100 million underlines the company’s commitment to be the nation’s network provider of choice and to support economic growth in Ireland," said chief executive Paul Donovan.

“The introduction of television and entertainment services is extremely exciting and underlines how far the company has progressed during the past two years. We are determined to offer quality products and services that are relevant and offer real value to our customers. Today is the next step in that journey."

Earlier this month, Eircom began talks with a committee representing 28 per cent of its first lien lenders on a debt restructuring. First lien lenders at Eircom are owed a net €2.36 billion. The company’s total net debt is €3.7 billion.

The company has been warning it may breach debt covenants for some time.

In a separate announcement, UPC said it would invest almost €80 million in its fibre network and is to create 50 new jobs over the coming weeks.

UPC has invested more than €400 million to date in its fibre network. The company already employs 845 people in Ireland, and will create the new roles in areas such as customer service and sales, management and administrative roles.