enet, Ireland’s open access network operator, is building Irelands first fibre city in Kilkenny through a €0.5m investment in new, world class broadband infrastructure. This network development will see service providers such as Ripplecom offering 250Mbs broadband connectivity to local businesses.
This ‘Fibre To The Business’ (FTTB) network future-proofs Kilkenny’s business community by providing the ultimate broadband experience, free from bandwidth bottlenecks and allowing local businesses to take full advantage of digital markets and exploit online opportunities.
Crucially, enet fibredirect is a genuine 100% fibre service, with fibre optic cables being delivered directly into businesses. Other so-called ‘fibre’ services connect to a local telecoms exchange or cabinet, but still rely on older copper networks to reach the premises, resulting in a significant loss of performance. With enet fibredirect bandwidth will be delivered directly into individual premises, meaning the broadband speeds advertised will be guaranteed rather than the ‘up to’ claims made by service providers over copper networks.
Construction of the new enet fibredirect network will commence at the beginning of March, and should be completed by the end of June.
According to John Hurley, CEO of the Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce: “The prospect of Kilkenny becoming the first fibre optic City in Ireland is hugely exciting and will reaffirm our City as a preferred location in which to base businesses going into the future.”
Kilkenny Acting Chief Executive, John Mulholland, commented: “The availability of direct fibre connectivity represents a step-change in the quality of broadband for Kilkenny City. It will give the city a significant competitive advantage, and will greatly increase its potential for future growth. Kilkenny County Council has fully supported and assisted this project from its inception and will continue to do so. I would like to commend and thank enet, and especially the Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce, for their efforts to date, and to wish all involved every success in the delivery of this important infrastructure.”
Conal Henry, enet CEO said: “The team at enet are thrilled to be making this investment, making Kilkenny the first truly fibre-enabled city in Ireland, following on from our success in Claremorris, Loughrea and Ardee. By building a fibre network directly into every business, we are doing something no one else has done before. This fibre network completely replaces the out-of-date copper network which has reached its end of life – every business can finally get broadband from a broadband network!”
“The support of the local authority, as well as the Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce, has been critical in driving us towards this successful outcome. We will be looking to replicate this level of support in other locations to facilitate further enet fibredirect rollouts.”
Commenting on the initiative, John McDonnell, CEO of Ripplecom, said: “We are very proud of our involvement in the delivery of this world-class fibre service to Kilkenny which will provide local businesses with high performance bandwidth, high speed Internet, voice and video. The bandwidth offered by Ripplecom will be delivered via fibre optic cables directly into each premises meaning that broadband speeds advertised will be guaranteed, resulting in significant improvements in download and upload speeds for users. The cost savings, efficiency gains and commercial opportunities this superfast fibre network will create is extremely positive news for the economic growth of the region and all at Ripplecom are delighted to be involved.”
enet expect their four pilot towns Claremorris, Loughrea, Ardee and Kilkenny to be the first of many Irish towns and cities to benefit from this world class digital infrastructure.