SIRO to invest €40m to expand its offering to six new towns across Ireland.

SIRO is Ireland's first 100pc fibre-optic broadband network and is available in 50 towns nationwide so far.

The investment will see its services enter Mullingar, Newbridge, Ennis, Portlaoise, Drogheda, and Carlow.

As a result, services will be live or construction work will be under way in 17 towns by the end of the year - Dundalk, Cavan, Carrigaline, Sligo, Letterkenny, Tralee, Wexford, Drogheda, Westport, Castlebar, Mullingar, Newbridge, Ennis, Ratheniska, Carlow and Skibbereen.

SIRO chief executive Sean Atkinson said the company has received a "fantastic response" from its rollout.

"It is our ambition to become Ireland's new national telecomms infrastructure," Mr Atkinson said.

"We have plans for a second phase which covers over 300 smaller towns and we are shortlisted for the Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) which aims to deliver high speed access to all citizens by 2020," he said.

SIRO is a joint venture between the ESB and Vodafone. As part of the venture the broadband network runs along the ESB's electricity wires, both overhead and underground.  Using the existing network, Siro delivers its broadband via fibre optic cables all the way to the building. 

This technology is known as "FTTB" and as it has no copper connections at any point to slow down the network, it can deliver 1 Gigabit download and upload speeds

The venture was launched in May last year with before making the service first available across 10 towns initially.

"We are now passing 10,000 premises per month and working in 17 towns," commented the company's chief executive Sean Atkinson. 

"Siro gives consumers and businesses in regional Ireland access to far better services than that available in Dublin and other cities, thus reversing the digital divide and allowing them to compete more effectively for investment and jobs," Mr Atkinson added

SIRO values its network at €450m with the technology delivering broadband copper-free, which has the ability to slow down connections.

The added investment comes after the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) announced it would be throwing its weight behind Eir for the Government's country-wide broadband plan.

Eir is one of three bidders been shortlisted to land the State contract. As part of the deal the IFA will help Eir develop the best broadband solution for farmers. SIRO's rollout has so far been restricted to towns with at least 4,000 homes or businesses.

From independent.ie & rte.ie (22/9/2016)