Vodafone Group expands gigabit fibre-to-the-home networks across Europe

Vodafone Group today announced the commencement of 1 gigabit ultrafast fibre broadband services in Ireland as part of SIRO, Vodafone Ireland and ESB’s €450 million joint venture to roll out a 100% fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network to small towns (with upwards of 4,000 houses) across Ireland by the end of 2018.¹

Carrigaline in Country Cork is the first of 51 Irish towns to receive access to the SIRO network, enabling homes and businesses to experience ultrafast broadband speeds on a par with those in advanced industrial economies in Asia.² With recent data showing that less than 50% of all fixed broadband subscriptions in Ireland provide speeds of 30 megabits or more,³ SIRO’s speeds of up to 1 gigabit (1000 megabits) per second are set to revolutionise the online experience of 500,000 homes and businesses in small towns across Ireland. Ireland is the first country in Europe to utilise electricity infrastructure to deploy end-to-end fibre directly to the premises on a nationwide basis.⁴

Vodafone Group also today announced a €125 million expansion of its FTTH network in Portugal, offering speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second to 2.75 million homes and businesses across the country by the end of 2016.⁵ To date, Vodafone has connected 2.2 million Portuguese homes and businesses to ultrafast fibre networks, expanding choice for customers and helping to establish Portugal as one of Europe’s leading FTTH countries.⁶

These investments complement other Vodafone fibre investment programmes and plans across a number of the Group’s southern European markets. Vodafone is also:

Vodafone Group Public Policy Director Markus Reinisch said: “The successful economies of the future will be gigabit societies with ultrafast fibre-optic connections available everywhere. Vodafone is playing its part in realising that objective: we have demonstrated that we invest in fibre-to-the-home when conditions allow us to do so, working together with other forward-looking companies to build the ultrafast digital infrastructure that Europe needs.”

Notes to editor:

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About Vodafone Ireland

Vodafone is Ireland's leading total communications provider with more than 2 million mobile customers and 225,000 fixed broadband customers. It provides a total range of communications solutions including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications to consumers and to small, medium and large businesses. Since 2011, Vodafone Ireland has expanded its enterprise division, offering integrated next-generation fixed and mobile solutions in addition to cloud-based platforms, machine to machine services and professional ICT support.

About Vodafone Portugal

Vodafone Portugal is a full telecommunications operator offering mobile, fixed, internet and advanced television services to its customers. It has more than 4.9 million mobile customers, 386,000 fixed broadband customers and a leadership position in terms of innovation, brand image and customer satisfaction in Portugal.

About Vodafone Group

Vodafone is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 57 more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 30 September 2015, Vodafone had 454 million mobile customers and 12.5 million fixed broadband customers. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com