The Irish Government’s long overdue intervention to bring 750,000 postal addresses into the 21st century is gaining impetus after it emerged that at least 10 players have bid for two State broadband contracts valued at between €300m and €500m.
The plan – supported by EU state aid – will fund operators to compete to deliver a guaranteed minimum of 30Mbps download speeds and 6Mbps upload speeds with 99.95pc uptime.
However, there are indications that bidding firms, which includeEir, Enet and the ESB/Vodafone joint venture SIRO, intend to go way beyond this to 1Gbps fibre-to-the-home services, potentially creating a scenario where rural dwellers could, in time, have better broadband than their urban counterparts.
