SIRO, the broad network operator jointly owned by ESB and Vodafone, will invest €50m to rollout fibre broadband to a network of 70,000 homes and businesses in the South County Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown local authority areas.
The rollout will take approximately two years, and works are expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
Approximately 250 people will be employed in the construction works between SIRO and its contracting partners, Gaeltec, Richard Nolan Civil Engineering and TLI.
The announcement comes after SIRO briefed representatives of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council on Thursday of its plans to roll out the network across the area.
SIRO will target Dún Laoghaire town, Foxrock, Blackrock, Stillorgan, Cabinteely, Deansgrange, Carrickmines, Dundrum, Ballinteer, Sandyford, Killiney and Shankill with the project.
In Association with
The broadband network operator already has a significant network presence in north Dublin, where its rollout is ongoing and where the SIRO network has already passed over 60,000 homes and businesses.
“SIRO is working to address this issue, giving residents and businesses of South County Dublin access to world class broadband. Today’s announcement sets out our intent for areas in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown over the next two years," said John Kearney, CEO of SIRO.
“In addition to our roll-out in north Dublin and Fingal, which is well advanced and ongoing, we are now committing to bring world-class fibre connectivity to tens of thousands of more premises across South Dublin."
SIRO is currently rolling out fibre broadband to 154 towns and cities across Ireland, and its services are now available to 450,000 premises. SIRO plans to extend its network to 770,000 premises over the next four years using the existing ESB electricity network.
Over the last 12 months, it has launched 2 Gigabits speeds for residential users and up to 10 Gigabits for enterprises.
Frank Curran, CEO of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, stated: “In an increasingly digitised world SIRO’s planned fibre broadband rollout is a most welcome development in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.
“This type of high-speed connectivity infrastructure directly affects thousands of homes and businesses in a very positive way. We look forward to working with SIRO to ensure this project is brought to fruition for everyone’s benefit.”
SIRO last year secured investment of €620m, including a €170m loan from the European Investment Bank, to fund the second phase of its fibre broadband rollout, and in September announced the towns it would reach this year.
National Broadband Ireland
In response, National Broadband Ireland has announced it has reached 20,000 connections in the rollout of its high-speed fibre broadband network as part of the National Broadband Plan.
A total of 20,512 premises, including homes, farms, businesses and community facilities are now connected to the NBI network, and are guaranteed minimum broadband speeds of 500Mb.
More than 94,000 premises can now order or pre-order service with one of the retail service providers registered on the NBI network. NBI said it has seen take-up rates of over 30% in deployment areas that have been live for a period of six months or more.
"20,000 connections is a significant milestone for the rollout and one that we’re continuing to build upon, as our ability to move premises from the construction phase to the order phase ramps up," said Joe Lavin, chief commercial officer of NBI.
"Ultimately, we will connect 560,000 homes, farms, businesses, and schools or over 1.1m people."
