E-Net wins lucrative internet broadband supply contract

THE GOVERNMENT has given the contract to manage operate high-speed internet networks to Limerick firm E-Net.

The agreement will see E-Net manage Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), comprised of duct and fibre, laid around 19 cities and towns. E-Net will operate as a wholesaler making broadband infrastructure available to authorised telecoms operators.

“Our plan is to be the provider of low-cost broadband infrastructure in the regions so as to enable service providers offer services at competitive prices.

“Our extensive research with business and telecoms providers shows there is a strong demand for quality broadband infrastructure,” the company’s chief operating officer George McGrath said in a statement yesterday.

The 15-year contract will see the taxpayer net some of the profits and revenue made by E-Net, but Communications Minister Dermot Ahern would not disclose the Government’s share yesterday.

E-Net has raised €12 million in funding from venture capital company, ACT, Anglo Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland. The company is run by Michael Tiernan of Tiernan Properties and chaired by Eoin O’Driscoll, who heads the Enterprise Strategy Group.

The firm will create 65 jobs in Limerick to manage the networks and this figure could rise to 120.

The Government has invested €70m in the regional broadband infrastructure initially serving 19 regional centres with a further €79m expected to be invested in expanding the network

Mr Ahern said: “Broadband is as essential an infrastructural prerequisite as roads, railways and energy networks. We are not stopping here as we are expanding the Regional Metropolitan Network.

“The contract with E-Net includes provision for extension to these additional networks when they come on stream.”

He also said yesterday that it was extending the MANs to a further 41 towns. The new programme will cost €55m, funded 90% by the Government in partnership with local authorities.

“The networks in the ground have cost in the region of €65m but they will repay this investment back tenfold through increased competitiveness,” he said.