Business

Ireland's Electricity Supply Board (ESB) is planning to build a super fast fibre network, and is currently looking for a partner for the initiative.

ESB is aiming to connect nearly half a million homes in the first phase of the development, mainly in towns outside the main metropolitan areas of Dublin and Cork and at speeds of up to 150Mbps.

The Irish Times newspaper reports that Vodaphone and BT are interested in collaborating in the project, which could start in the early part of next year, but both firms have declined to comment on the matter.

IT and telecoms services provider Modrus is gaining a new fibre infrastructure from CityFibre, one of the UK’s leading independent fibre infrastructure providers.

Connecting its head office and main operating centre in the city of Bournemouth with its three datacentres in London, the new link will replace Modrus’ existing BT connection to become its new primary link, enabling the company to improve its customer service with faster server set-ups.

Adtran a US-based provider of next-generation networking solutions, has announced that Lintasarta has chosen the Total Access 5000 broadband platform as the backbone of the company’s fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) service roll-out.

Indonesia’s largest telecommunications provider Lintasarta is deploying FTTP to deliver faster broadband speeds for business services that demand service level agreements (SLAs) for continuous service performance and availability. Adtran says the Total Access 5000 is purpose-built for supporting premium, consolidated broadband services.

Metaswitch Networks, a provider of communications software and solutions, has announced that CityPlay has selected its MetaSphere Multimedia Telephony Applications Server (MTAS) and Perimeta Session Border Controller (SBC).

Finnish telecoms company TeliaSonera has pledged to buy more fibre networks in Scandinavian markets in an effort to improve network quality and increase its range of services.

Noting increased sales and profitability in its second quarter for 2013, the company stated that it is aiming to increase its share of the market in the region by providing a bigger capacity.

BT has stated that it is unlikely to derive a financial return on its investment in rural fibre broadband for at least 10 years.

As reported, the broadband provider has been something of a lone crusader in providing rural broadband access, after several other companies decided that it was not an area in which it was easy to make a profit.

The high costs of installing fibre connections are leaving thousands of people without broadband connections, while plans to roll out super-fast broadband in the UK are running two years late.

Three European telecoms giants have embraced a spirit of collaboration in an effort to expand Spain's fibre optic network in homes and business premises. Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange have signed an agreement to share vertical fibre optic infrastructures in buildings across the country.

Huawei, the Chinese ICT giant, is reportedly involved in plans to link Pakistan and China fibre-optically – including laying an 800-kilometre stretch of cable alongside the world-famous Karakoram Highway.

According to the Pakistani financial press, the proposed project is part of an $18 billion plan to better link the two countries with a new road and rail track aimed at creating an efficient Pakistan-China ‘economic corridor’.

Internet speeds could be accelerated by up to 100 times by the use of graphene in telecommunications, according to university researchers.

In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, researchers from the Centre for Graphene Science at the Universities of Bath and Exeter demonstrated for the first time incredibly short optical response rates using graphene, which could pave the way for a revolution in telecommunications.

Modulight has announced the nomination of Kalle Palomäki to the company's board of directors. Palomäki brings to the board extensive experience in international sales. He has a background in sales and general management in the area of information technology and is currently Senior Vice President at Efecte.

Palomäki's nomination is effective immediately and he will assume board membership as non-executive director. His nomination follows the retirement of Hubert Jouve from the board. Dr. Jouve will continue as active shareholder and senior advisor to the Board.