Siro to roll out broadband network to six more Cork towns 

Siro is a wholesale operator, which means that companies such as Sky, Vodafone, and Digiweb resell their services to users once the network is up and running.

Pictured at the Siro announcement  are Finance Minister Michael McGrath; Siro CEO John Keaney; and Independent councillor Danny Collins, the mayor of Co Cork.

Broadband network operator Siro said it will roll out its fibre network to six more Cork towns as part of a new €25m investment.

The towns covered in the latest project are Fermoy, Youghal, Bandon, Kinsale, Mitchelstown, and Passage West, as Siro plans to make its fibre broadband services available to 20,000 more premises in Cork this year.

Siro was founded in 2015 as a joint venture between ESB Group and Vodafone. It is a wholesale operator, which means that companies such as Sky, Vodafone, and Digiweb resell their services to users once the network is up and running.

It said it will announce more areas in 2024 and estimates it will have invested over €125m in Cork broadband services when it completes the project over the next four years.

Siro chief executive John Keaney said the firm is targeting smaller regional towns around Co Cork with “future-proofed” services.

“Lots of the communities that we are now going into were relying or making do with a copper connection,” said Mr Keaney.

That is more susceptible to weather, it is down more often. It doesn’t have the bandwidth to support all of the devices we all have in our houses."

Siro upgraded its network last year to 10 gigabits, which it says will give more options to Cork businesses.

“That doesn’t require any new fibre network, that just requires us upgrading the electronics at either end,” he said.

Mr Keaney said he does not have any concerns about the use of Huawei equipment in the latest rollout despite the use of the Chinese tech company’s equipment having been banned in several countries.

“There are a number of layers of network security and there are different layers in terms of the intelligence used over those different layers," he said.

"The Huawei equipment that Siro uses is at a level two, there is no control or traffic. We use it to light up our network.

“In terms of the security risk, we’re very comfortable with that.” Siro began rolling out its fibre broadband in Cork in 2017 and currently reaches 60,000 premises in the county.

The service is already running in a number of towns, including in Mallow, Skibbereen, Carrigaline, Carrigtwohill, and Little Island.