Broadband network operator Siro will roll out its full fibre network to more than 70,000 homes and businesses across the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown local authority area in south Dublin.
Siro is investing €50 million in the project, which will take about two years, with works expected to be completed by the end of 2024. Siro’s contracting partners on the project include Gaeltec, Richard Nolan Civil Engineering and TLI. About 250 people will be engaged in the construction works over the course of the network build.
The announcement follows a briefing on the project by senior Siro executives to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown elected representatives and officials at the local authority’s chamber offices.
The company’s key targets include Dún Laoghaire town, Foxrock, Blackrock, Stillorgan, Cabinteely, Deansgrange, Carrickmines, Dundrum, Ballinteer, Sandyford, Killiney and Shankill. In total, Siro aims to reach more than 70,000 premises – residential and commercial – across its network footprint.
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Siro, a joint venture between ESB and Vodafone, is currently rolling out a 100 per cent fibre broadband network across 154 Irish towns and cities, with services currently available to more than 450,000 premises. It has a target to reach 770,000 premises over the next four years.
The Siro network has already passed more than 60,000 homes and businesses in north Dublin.
“Poor broadband is not exclusively a regional issue. Anyone who lives in or runs a business in our capital and its suburbs can also face connectivity issues,” said Siro chief executive John Keaney.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council chief executive Frank Curran welcomed Siro’s investment. “This type of high-speed connectivity infrastructure directly affects thousands of homes and businesses in a very positive way.”
Separately on Friday, the company delivering the Government’s National Broadband Plan, announced that 20,000 homes, farms and businesses have now been connected to the network.
It means that these premises now have “guaranteed access to minimum broadbands speeds of 500 megabytes”, National Broadband Ireland (NBI) said in a statement.
Joe Lavin, chief commercial officer at NBI, described it as a “significant milestone” for the rollout.
The Government has allocated €217.5 million for the rollout of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) as part of Budget 2023 last month, down slightly from the €225 million earmarked for the project this year.
At the time, Minister for Public Expenditure told the Dáil that an additional 11,000 households have been passed with fibre cable as part of the rollout since July, bringing to 75,000 the total number of Irish homes with access.
Mr Lavin said on Friday that 560,000 homes, farms, businesses, and schools or over 1.1 million people, will be connected to the network once the rollout is complete.
