Irish towns to get broadband to rival Tokyo

Some of the towns with the slowest broadband speeds in Ireland will soon have connectivity to rival international hubs such Tokyo and Hong Kong, according to the company installing fibre optic cable in rural areas.

The promise of lightning speeds within little over a year comes from SIRO, which describes itself as “Ireland’s largest fibre-to-the-building operator”, in the wake of a new study that has found broadband speeds can be up to 36 times slower in some parts of the country compared to others.

Speed test data collected by Switcher.ie found that the county with the slowest connectivity is Longford, while fastest speeds are in Dublin. The Government’s National Broadband Plan is trying to address the problem and so too is SIRO, a joint venture between Vodafone and the ESB that uses the electricity network to delivered fibre optic broadband to the door.