Virgin Media Ireland is to invest €200m upgrading its broadband network to full fibre, which will enable speeds of up to 10 Gigabits per second for the company’s customers.

The network reaches over 1 million homes and businesses.

The 10 Gigabit project is expected to take three years to complete, and will commence in Q1 2022. The investment is backed by Liberty Global, Virgin Media Ireland’s parent company. 

Chief executive Tony Hanway (pictured) said: “At Virgin Media we’re committed to innovating for our customers and investing in Ireland’s long-term digital future. We’re now accelerating the evolution of our network by building out full fibre to more than 1 million Irish homes and businesses over the next three years.”

Virgin Media says it has successfully piloted a 10Gb fibre upgrade of 500 premises.

In Association with

The company has also signalled an intention to provide wholesale access to third party service providers.

Communications minister Eamon Ryan welcomed the investment programme.

“Continued investments by commercial operators such as this bring benefits for consumers,” he stated. “Together with the government’s investment under the National Broadband Plan, this will place Ireland at the forefront of EU countries in terms of Gigabit connectivity.”