eircom maps out phase 3 of its FTTx initiative

eircom, Ireland's incumbent telco, on Monday unveiled the next locations for the third phase of its ongoing Fiber to the x (FTTx) broadband project.

Set to be operational next year, the former state-run telecom will target 125,000 homes and businesses in eight counties across the country.

Work on the third phase of the FTTX rollout will begin this winter and be completed by Easter 2013.

Communities covered in this phase include Churchfield, in Cork City; Waterford City, Kilkenny City, Sligo Town, and Mullingar, in County Westmeath; Tralee, in County Kerry; Westport, in County Mayo; Crown Alley, Dolphin's Barn, Nutley and Beggars Bush, and Coolock, in Dublin City; and Balbriggan in County Dublin.

Herb Hribar, who returned to the company to become its new CEO last month, said that phase 3 will now serve 40 locations with FTTx and about a total of 350,000 premises with speeds of up to 40 Mbps when the service becomes available next year.

Since completing the first phase of the FTTx rollout, eircom now passes over 100,000 homes and businesses with fiber, providing 40 Mbps. When it completes Phase 2, which was announced in April, the telco will pass 250,000 homes and businesses in 27 communities.

The fiber network is an open access network, meaning competitive telcos will also be able to deliver higher speeds to their customers.

"We will continue to build this network to ensure that as many premises as possible will be able to avail of the new services provided by various operators when the network is launched," Hribar said in a SiliconRepublic article.

This three-phase FTTx network will leverage a mix of both Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC) and Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) networks that will reach 1 million homes by 2015.

eircom's FTTx initiative runs parallel with the country's own broadband plan to provide a minimum of 30 Mbps speeds to every consumer and business in the country.

eircom FTTx rollout phase 3 scheduleeircom FTTx rollout phase 3

Source: eircom

For more:
- see the news release
- SiliconRepublic has this article

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