GTS, the telecommunications and e-business provider, has shortlisted Dublin as a site for a proposed Internet hosting facility and is close to announcing a $40 million (€44.31 million) investment in a fibre-optic network linking the Republic and the UK.
Mr Jean-Pierre Vandromme, senior vice-president of sales and marketing GTS, said Dublin had been shortlisted with Milan, Barcelona, Budapest and Prague as possible centres for an Internet hosting centre which would be an investment of at least £12 million.
GTS has already set up hosting centres in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. These centres provide co-location facilities for Internet Service Providers and offer firms managed services in e-commerce and e-business.
Mr Vandromme said the next wave of hosting centres would be officially announced when the original European centres had sold their capacity. However, he confirmed the company had secured a lease on a 60,000-sq ft building in CityWest and building work was almost complete at the site.
He said Dublin was "very well-positioned" to secure the investment because of strong demand for hosting facilities due to the growth in the economy and the success of GTS's Internet sales force in the Republic.
"Look at Ireland and then look at France for example. Ireland is light years ahead in terms of Internet, IP (Internet protocol) infrastructure and accepting Internet. You are talking about a different world," he added.
Mr Vandromme was visiting Dublin to award bonuses to GTS's top three IP sales people in Europe, who were all based in the Republic. More than 40 per cent of new business revenue comes from IP and data and this is continuing to increase month on month in the Republic.
Meanwhile, Mr Vandromme said GTS was close to announcing a 2000-kilometre extension of its fibre network in the UK and Ireland which would link a number of major cities including; Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham, Leeds and London.
He said the company was in the final stages of negotiations to acquire the required fibre which would extend GTS's European broadband network to 19,400 kilometres from its current 17,000 kilometres. An announcement could be made as early as next week.
As part of a restructuring plan which would result in the shedding of 400 jobs worldwide, GTS, recently announced that it would locate all its European finance functions in Cork. This project which is being supported by IDA Ireland will create 150 jobs.
Mr Vandromme said there would be no net job losses in the Republic as part of this restructuring which would refocus the company on broadband and IP services and away from voice services in the residential marketplace.
GTS operation in the Republic was already focused on IP services and would suffer job losses as a consequence. However, the centralisation of finance functions to the new centre in Cork may result in some people who did not want to move leaving the company, according to local management.
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