Cablelink is joining Ireland's Internet service providers (ISPs) by launching a cable modem high-speed Internet service on its Dublin network in the fourth quarter of this year. The new service, which Cablelink says will be of a quality previously unavailable to users, will, it claims, create 50 new jobs.
Cablelink currently provides a cable TV and radio service to 320,000 customers in Dublin and 30,000 in Galway and Waterford, and says that some 36 per cent of these have computers. The company says that research among its subscribers last year indicated that there was "overwhelming interest in accessing the Internet via cable". Cablelink also intends to target business users, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.
The company currently employs some 260 people, most at its Dublin headquarters, plus installation crews on contracts.
Cablelink is promising separately to launch a telephony service in the near future, as Irish telecoms are deregulated. However, the cable ISP service will still require subscribers to dial in using their Telecom ╔ireann phones.
"The network will be re-engineered over the coming years to allow full two-way capability; when we're two-way enabled you won't need a phone to get on to the Internet," says Brian Moore, Cablelink's head of commercial operations. "Upstream and downstream will be on cable. But that won't be complete for about five years."
For now, he says, you dial up using your Telecom ╔ireann line, connect to the site of your choice, then, if you want to download a file, - a graphic or a movie, for example - you would download that on the cable.
"The way it operates is that you'll have a single point of entry into your home. The cable will be split, one element going directly into your television set giving you multi-channel TV, and the other part running around to a cable modem connected to your PC, and you can connect to the Internet while simultaneously watching TV."
Cablelink is formulating a virtual city at the moment, says Moore, which would include banking, shopping an movies.
It is fair enough for Cablelink to offer broadband facilities in competition with other ISPs who do not have the facility, says Moore, since the company put the architecture in place, and spent a lot of money putting the cable into Dublin. "Really what we're doing is maximising the use of that cable."
The company has an exclusive licence to provide cable service in Dublin, so Esat or Telecom would not be able to go into competition as cable providers, he said.
Over the first couple of years, he said, Cablelink is looking at creating up to 50 new jobs. "The total plan at the moment is about £5 million. That includes more than just staff - but it excludes the cost of re-engineering the network. The network is being reengineered anyway, and needs to be for the provision of telephony services."
The cable itself is in place, he says, and tests have shown that the company can provide service across the network in Dublin. Cablelink's turnover this year, Moore said, was "just shy of £40 million". Asked whether it was going to be possible to fund the work out of cashflow, he said: "It's going to be funded effectively by the shareholders. That's the way things operate." Any arrangement with a possible strategic partner, he said, would be up to the shareholders and the government.