UPC to offer Europe’s fastest broadband service
The country’s largest cable operator is to launch Europe’s fastest broadband service to 600,000 Irish homes.
UPC, which trades as Chorus NTL, will invest €90 mil lion next year to launch a home broadband service of 100megabits per second (Mbs) by August, according to its director of sales and marketing, Mark Coan. The service, which will be 50 times faster than broadband speeds in Ireland today, will place Ireland among the top tier of EU countries for broadband speeds.
“We believe that there is a definite market need for this,” said Coan.” There is a myth that Irish consumers are not interested in fast broadband speeds. But almost two-thirds of all our new broadband connections are at the highest level possible, ten to 20 megabits.”
The service will put new pressure on operators such as Eircom and mobile operators to invest in new infrastructure for so-called ‘next-generation’ broadband networks.
A recent Oxford University survey placed Ireland last among EU countries for the speed and quality of its broadband. However, the survey revealed that availability of basic broadband services had improved, with Ireland now mid-table among EU countries for broadband availability.
UPC is currently upgrading its network, replacing older cabling with fibre, which is required to deliver next-generation broadband speeds.
