e|net, Ireland’s largest open access network operator and the company responsible for managing the State’s fibre-optic Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), has announced that it has successfully completed the handover process for Phase 2 of the project, covering an additional 66 towns.
eInet CEO, Conal Henry, said he was extremely pleased that this handover process only took 12 months, “It’s a remarkable achievement that e|net has completed the Phase 2 handovers in under a year considering the Phase 1 process took 18 months – and that was for only 27 towns. Our ability to add these 66 towns to our footprint highlights our ambition to stimulate the rollout of advanced technologies to businesses all over Ireland.”
In relation to the uptake on Phase 2, Henry stated, “We’re pleased to announce that a number of Phase 2 towns are already activated and are carrying telecoms traffic. However, it’s important to note that the outcome for every MAN town will depend on the business plans of the various telecoms operators in that area, and crucially the availability of backhaul to connect the MAN to the wider, global network.”
Henry went on to say, “While e|net is anxious not to create unrealistic expectations of what some of the Phase 2 MANs will deliver, our experience with the Phase 1 towns is that the existence of a MAN has a major impact on boosting the range, quality and value of communications solutions in the area. Sometimes though, the benefits of the MANs are very real but remain largely unseen, with some customers benefitting from MAN based services such as fixed wireless broadband or mobile broadband without even realising it themselves.”