February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
DUBLIN — Ireland is connecting to the worldwide computer superhighway using the Global Crossing company network in a deal announced by Tanaiste Mary Harney worth 77 million euro.
She said the development would ensure Ireland was at the leading edge of Internet and e-commerce business developments
Global Crossing will provide 25 Gbps of capacity to 24 European cities and to the U.S. with the system due to be operational by the end of the first half of next year.
The capacity will be sufficient for every man, woman and child in Ireland to connect to the Internet at broadband speed with full voice, video and other functionality.
The government also announced EU aid of 23 million euro in respect of nine contracts to seven different companies. It will roll out national broadband telecommunications systems.
These networks will involve a total additional investment of 60 million euro in modernizing the telecommunications system,.
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They will link 120 different Irish towns with a total population of 2 million and involve laying 1,000 kilometers of cable.
At the launch, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that in 1977 Ireland accounted for 55 percent of U.S. software projects locating in Europe and the country was the second biggest exporter of software in the world.
The new development would mean "a first rate on-line society" that would reap the benefits of the information revolution.