Siro, the joint venture between Vodafone and ESB, is to employ 260 people as it begins the rollout of its fibre-to-the-home broadband network. Two hundred jobs will be allocated to contractors with the remaining 60 hired on a permanent basis.
Siro is investing €450 million in the network, which is capable of offering speeds up to 1Gb/s and is already available to 500,000 premises in 50 town across Ireland. Siro, however, wil not operate as a retailer but as a wholesaler to other operators making its network available to telecoms operators across the country.
The first 10 ‘fibrehoods’, to be connected in Siro’s roll-out are Cavan, Dundalk, Westport, Castlebar, Sligo, Carrigaline, Tralee, Navan, Letterkenny and Wexford.
Construction on the network began last September in Cavan and the initial phase of the project is expected to be fully rolled-out by the end of 2018 with scope for a second phase that will reach 300 smaller towns.
Siro also announced its interest in tendering for the National Broadband Plan later this year.
Anne O’Leary, Vodafone Ireland CEO, said: “Irish consumers and businesses deserve so much more from their broadband and SIRO is a transformative project which will finally provide the connectivity required to put Ireland on an equal footing with some of the most competitive economies across the globe.
“This project is being held up internationally as an example of unique innovation where telecoms operators can re-use existing national electricity infrastructure to provide broadband right into customers’ homes and businesses. It is Ireland’s first fully open access network, which is a huge positive as it will drive welcome competition in the market and much needed investment in broadband infrastructure across regional Ireland.”
Sean Atkinson, Siro CEO, added: “This project demonstrates how a commercial semi-state is making efficient and effective use of its assets, along with Vodafone’s fibre expertise, to deliver world-leading speeds to the Irish market.
“I believe that Siro as a custom built open access FTTB wholesale operator is ideally suited to helping the Government achieve its National Broadband Plan goal of delivering a minimum of 30Mb/s to every premises in the country.”
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