Danville Business Park in Kilkenny City has opened for business with all 34 business units already directly connected to Kilkenny’s fibre optic Metropolitan Area Network (MAN).
The direct fibre connection for each business unit to the e|net-managed MAN network will mean businesses will potentially be able to access broadband at speeds of up to one Gigabit (1,000,000,000 bits of information) per second. They will also be able to receive services from all telecoms operators in Ireland, as a result of the provision of this fibre connection.
In a piece of far-sighted planning, fibre optic infrastructure was pre-installed during construction of the business park. E|net, who manage the fibre optic MANs network, then installed fibre cable to each business unit.
Kilkenny was one of 27 cities and towns around to receive fibre optic MANs infrastructure. More recently, e|net has been confirmed as preferred bidder by the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources to manage the next phase of the MANs covering an additional 66 towns, including MANs in Castlecomer and Thomastown, both in County Kilkenny.
Conal Henry, CEO of e|net commented, “This type of deal really is the future for high-speed telecoms provision, where high-capacity fibre is provided directly into the business units. The businesses residing in Danville really will be benefiting from the best available technology. It will facilitate the high-speed broadband and telecoms that knowledge based businesses now require. They will also benefit from greater competition and cost savings, as they will be able to deal directly with the telecoms providers.
“The deal with to continue to reduce any ‘digital divide’ so that services and costs available in MAN-enabled towns get ever closer to the best that are available in Dublin and major cities around the world.”
There are currently over 600,000 users benefiting from the existence of the MAN’s. The Government is currently proceeding with a second phase of the Metropolitan Area Network Programme for the building of up to a further 90 MANs around Ireland.