THE BACKERS of a new $15 million (€12.5 million) telecoms cable between Ireland and Wales are in discussion with the Government and IDA Ireland about investing $100 million (€75 million) in a direct link between Cork and France.
Construction on such a project could begin as soon as next spring, and would provide the first direct high bandwidth link between Ireland and mainland Europe.
The new cable would target the cluster of games companies and multinationals in the Cork region such as EMC, Activision/Blizzard and Apple which require high capacity, high speed links.
A specialised ship, Cable Innovator, will next week start laying the main cable for CeltixConnect’s link between Dublin and Holyhead. CeltixConnect chief executive Diane Hodnett said she expected customers to start transmitting traffic on the cable at the end of January.
The CeltixConnect project was announced in late 2009, and was originally expected to be completed last year. However, Ms Hodnett said some US investors pulled out of the project due to the wider economic situation in Ireland.
The project is now being funded 70 per cent by equity provided by US-listed fund CC Equity Investors and 30 per cent in the form of debt from South African bank Investec.
Ms Hodnett also said the issuing of a foreshore licence to land the cable and carry out the necessary construction works in Dublin, had also taken longer than expected.
The CeltixConnect cable will pass through the East Point Business Park in Dublin and on to the city’s IFSC. On the Welsh side, the 131km cable will connect to the Welsh Assembly-funded Parc Cybi business park in Holyhead. From there it will connect to networks linking Manchester, London and the rest of Europe.
CeltixConnect is the first new telecoms cable to land in Ireland since the completion of the 360 Networks trans-Atlantic link in 2001. That cable is now owned by Hibernia Atlantic after Canadian 360 Networks filed for bankruptcy the same year.
Capacity on the new cable will be sold primarily to telecoms firms and ISPs, mobile phone operators and a small number of multinationals in the technology space which have massive bandwidth requirements.
“We’ve been talking to customers for nine to 12 months and there is huge demand for this,” said Ms Hodnett. She said customers were attracted by the short distance of the cable, which means there is very little delay or latency in communication, the modern technology it uses, and its onward links to Europe.
She said the investors in CeltixConnect would be in Ireland next week for an event to mark the laying of the ocean part of the cable and hoped to discuss the connection to France with relevant Government agencies.
