Loughrea unveiled as enet’s second fibre town as businesses set to become 100% fibre connected

Press release
16th Sep 2014

 

enet, Ireland’s open access network operator, is building enet’s and Ireland’s second fibre town in Loughrea, Co Galway through a €0.4m investment in broadband infrastructure which sees Ripplecom offering 250Mbs broadband connectivity to local businesses.

This ‘Fibre To The Business’ (FTTB) network future-proofs Loughrea’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 planning of the new enet fibredirect network has commenced, and should be completed in December. Already 50% of the local businesses have subscribed to services delivered via the FTTB network by Ripplecom. The significant customer acquisition achieved by Ripplecom created the critical mass required to underpin the investment decision.

According to Keith Spain, Chairperson of the Loughrea Chamber of Commerce: “The Loughrea business community realise that the superfast broadband that this project will deliver has the potential to create a significant competitive advantage for Loughrea in terms of keeping, developing and attracting new companies and new jobs.”

Galway County Council Chief Executive, Mr. Kevin Kelly, commented:  “The availability of direct fibre connectivity represents a step-change in the quality of broadband for Loughrea. It will give the town a significant competitive advantage, and will greatly increase its potential for future growth. Galway 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, as well as Ripplecom, and especially the Loughrea 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 Loughrea the second, truly fibre-enabled town in Ireland, following on from our success in Claremorris. By building a fibre network directly into every business, we are doing something no one else has done in Ireland. 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 Ripplecom, as well as the Loughrea Chamber of Commerce and Galway County Council, 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 Loughrea 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 Loughrea and Claremorris to be the first of many towns to benefit from this world class digital infrastructure.