Siro promises €100m fibre broadband expansion to ‘underserved’ areas of Dublin

The company, which operates in areas “underserved” by high speed broadband providers such as Virgin Media, says that it is investing €100m in the build, although it did not say whether this is new investment or money already allocated.

Siro already reaches around a quarter of Ireland’s homes and businesses, or 550,000 of Ireland’s 2.1m premises, and operates as a rival network to Eir. It says it hopes to extend this coverage to 700,000 premises by 2026.

It does not lay networks in areas earmarked by the National Broadband Plan, which will cover 564,000 premises in rural areas not served by any commercial operator with high speed broadband.

Siro lays the fibre infrastructure while standard broadband and telecoms retailers then resell it in their own packages to home and businesses customers.

In Dublin’s city areas, Siro’s network will expand to areas of the docklands and East Wall, as well as Walkinstown, Kimmage and Crumlin. It is already laid in parts of the near-northside, as well as suburban towns such as Balbriggan and Dun Laoghaire.

"The presumption that our cities already enjoy universal full fibre connectivity can be inaccurate,” said John Kearney, CEO of Siro.

“Poor broadband can exist in areas of our cities and its suburbs, just as much as it can be found in more remote areas. By now reaching areas underserved by fibre to the home broadband, such as the Docklands, East Wall or Crumlin and Walkinstown, we are striving to ensure these areas have the broadband infrastructure essential for the future wider social and economic development of the city.”