Ireland: one year in business

The importance of Ireland’s communications infrastructure has come to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic as people have had to work from home. In a recent survey by Bank of Ireland, businesses cited telecommunications as the priority area for infrastructure investment, with the number of firms identifying it as a priority, up sharply since pre-Covid.

Recent research by ComReg also supports the case for further investment in wireless infrastructure, with a third (32%) of people in rural areas finding their broadband inadequate to meet their needs, and almost one in five (19%) mobile phone users in rural areas reporting that their experience of using 3G or 4G data since Covid has deteriorated.

Cellnex’s ongoing investment programmes support the objectives of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce established by the Government in 2016 to identify solutions to mobile phone coverage deficits across the country. Currently several Cellnex Ireland’s sites are being used in the implementation of the National Broadband Plan and supporting the roll out of Business Connection Points (BCPs) to deliver free high-speed internet access in some of the most isolated and rural communities in the country.

Colin Cunningham, Managing Director, Cellnex Ireland said:

“We are very pleased with the progress we have made in Ireland over the last year. Over 100 communities in the country are now benefiting from the improved coverage that our investment in new site infrastructure has delivered in the past 12 months. We have nearly 500 further sites to deliver in our plans, and will continue to work with operators to provide infrastructure in new locations so that they are able to offer improved mobile service to their customers. This has never been more important or timely than now with COVID-19.

Cellnex Telecom has invested over €10m in new telecommunications infrastructure in its first year in the Irish market with the remaining additional investment during the year on the enhancement of existing sites, supporting the delivery of improved mobile and wireless broadband coverage to over 100 communities as workers and families struggle with working and schooling from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since Cellnex completed the acquisition of Cignal in September 2019, it has built over 100 new telecom sites across all the 26 counties of the country, with 80% of these enabled with fibre infrastructure. Each of these new sites improves the mobile voice & wireless broadband signal and speeds of homes & businesses in the surrounding area by attracting new telecoms service providers and enhancing pre-existing services.

In addition to its investment during 2020 Cellnex has also agreed a partnership with state forestry company Coillte that will see Cellnex invest €5m in rolling out fibre connections to the 300 Cellnex sites located on Coillte property.

Colin Cunningham, Managing Director, Cellnex Ireland said:

“We are delighted to have entered a partnership with Coillte that means we are enabling fibre connectivity to 300 sites on their land. This improves the capability of the sites allowing for up to 10 times more data to be transmitted and at much higher speeds.”

The company’s plans has been shared by Cellnex Ireland at a webinar to mark one year in business in Ireland. With speakers from Dublin and Barcelona and some main topics: next generation infrastructures and networks, Cellnex approach to diversification; and overview of Cellnex Ireland plans.

As part of the event, Cellnex Ireland has made a donation on behalf of every attendee at the webinar to two social entities of the Irish community: Cancer Fund for Childern and Barnados:

Cancer Fund for Children are a team of specialists that provide a range of practical, financial and emotional support to families affected by cancer, at home, on the hospital ward and in the community.

Barnardos supports children whose well-being is under threat, by working with them, their families and communities and by campaigning for the rights of children.