National Broadband Ireland taps Nokia for national full fibre network

News and Business

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) has selected Nokia to design, build, and operate a nation-wide full fibre network, including FTTH, in the Republic of Ireland, following a call for bids. The project will fulfil Irish Government’s National Broadband Plan which aims provide high-speed connectivity to all of Ireland’s population, including 23% of whom currently live in the more rural Intervention Area (IA) in the next five to seven years.

The project, claimed to be one of the most ambitious government broadband plans in the world, involves providing full fibre broadband to more than 44,000 non-farm businesses, over 54,000 farms and 695 schools, and will be focused mainly on rural areas. As part of the agreement, Nokia will supply PON, IP, and optical transport equipment, including its FX OLTs, XGS-PON ONTs, management system and enhanced applications; 7750 Service Routers, providing IP edge networking for the cloud era; and 1830 Photonic Service Switches (PSS) to support next-generation DWDM multiservice, multilayer P-OTN transport

Peter Hendrick, CEO at National Broadband Ireland, said, “We believe that better broadband networks promote social progress, equality and sustainability. With equal access to local, national and global opportunity, every person, community and organisation in Ireland will be empowered to achieve more. We look forward to working with Nokia because the company has the experience from similar projects globally, as well as the technological capabilities and end-to-end portfolio, for a project like this.”

Cormac Whelan, CEO UK and Ireland at Nokia, said, “It is imperative for today’s digital societies to provide high-speed connectivity everywhere – not just in cities and urban areas – to enable new digital services, digitalization of industries and innovation for economy and society to the benefit of the whole country. This project is key for the further digitalization of Ireland.”

In November 2019, NBI, established by investment firm Granahan McCourt, signed a contract with the Irish government to deliver the country’s National Broadband Plan (NBP).

For more information, visit www.nokia.com