Telecoms firm E-net has been awarded the contract to manage the Metropolitan Area Networks, or MANs, in 19 regional centres by the Government. E-net says it will make broadband infrastructure available in the regions at competitive prices that will 'radically' shake up the market, by selling wholesale to other operators.
His firm was awarded this contract because Eircom's connections in the region were not going to make broadband available to the general public, so the Government had to step in.
George McGrath, chief operations officer for E-net, says that Ireland is actually catching up with the rest of the world, but that we about three years behind the European average. For broadband use, Korea is first at 26%, Ireland is at about 1% and Denmark is at about 12%.
