DUBLIN -- eircom Group today announced that it will significantly increase broadband speeds currently available on its fibre broadband network by offering one gigabit (1,000 megabits per second) connectivity in 66 communities across the country.

These superfast speeds will be underpinned by ‘end to end’ fibre connections through the use of fibre to the home (FTTH) technology. Customer connections will be provided as demand for this connectivity emerges.

With a one gigabit broadband connection, consumers can download a high definition film in less than a minute and business users will have bandwidth capacity to transfer applications and large data files at rates previously only available to large enterprises.

Work will commence next month on the first three locations - Cavan Town, Kilkenny City and Letterkenny Town. The construction phase for each location is expected to take approximately six months.

The planned footprint includes areas of all five major cities, major regional centres and every county town in Ireland. Detailed rollout plans for each community will be announced in due course.

Commenting on the announcement, Richard Moat, Acting CEO, eircom said, “Today demonstrates the flexibility and scalability of our future proofed fibre network. Building on our existing network design, end to end fibre connectivity supporting speeds of one gigabit, is the natural next step in the evolution of our network capability.

“This announcement underlines eircom’s ambition for Ireland and our ambition as the country’s leading telecommunication provider to rollout new technologies that enable and encourage economic growth. Once again we will demonstrate our expertise and ability to deliver network investment more efficiently and at lower cost than other operators.”

Separately, eircom Group has commenced the construction of a technical trial of FTTH to assess the most cost effective solution for the rollout of high speed broadband in rural Ireland and address the challenges of ribbon development. This trial is taking place in Belcarra, Mayo and will launch in early 2015. eircom has already trialled and deployed FTTH technology in both an urban and suburban environments in Wexford Town and Sandyford, Co Dublin.

eircom has outlined its plans to the Regulator (ComReg) and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR). Industry engagement will commence shortly. Operators will continue to have the same ‘open access’ to the fibre network alongside a suite of enhanced products with significantly increased speed profiles.

This project will run in parallel with eircom’s existing fibre investment programme. In August, eircom announced an acceleration and extension of these plans to reach 1.4 million premises by the end of 2015. It also expanded the planned footprint from 1.4 million to 1.6 million homes and businesses.

In a further acceleration of those announcements, eircom now estimates it will complete the rollout of fibre to 1.6 million homes and businesses by the middle of 2016, six months ahead of schedule. Last month, the company passed the important milestone of one million premises which can now access broadband with speeds of up to 100Mb per second.

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