Eircom chief executive Rex Comb has admitted that the current quality of its broadband services can be less than ideal but says it will be fixed with the current significant network upgrade.

"What's clear to us is that it's going to be a broadband highway," he says.

Comb adds that the upgrade is badly needed to support the increasingly high bandwidth web applications such as video that its customers are using.

"We need it yesterday if you look at the capacity in our network and how people are starting to use it," Comb says. "It's going through the roof, particularly in terms of downloads."

The company expects to announce the equipment vendor for the upgrade next week and the core of the network will be fully upgraded by June of next year.

It is the first stage in Eircom's next generation network (NGN) project, which will create a network based on internet protocol (IP). The current network configuration means each broadband connection can be shared with up to 24 other users.

This issue, known as contention, means that the speed a user achieves is dependent on the number of their neighbours who are online at any time.

The back-haul of the network - which links Eircom exchanges to its international internet connections - will be upgraded to a minimum of 1GBit/sec and 10GBit/ sec in some parts of the network.

Comb says that will increase capacity by up to 1,000 times, although end-users won't see anything like those kind of speed increases, due to the limitations of the copper phone lines to which they connect to the network.

The next step in the NGN project is upgrading connections to the home, probably with VDSL technology, which potentially could deliver speeds of up to 24MBit/sec and support services such as video, on demand.

Eircom is currently carrying out trials in the Dundrum exchange in Dublin. Comb hopes to present a business case for that upgrade to the Eircom board by the end of the year.

Comb will speak at the Telecommunications and Internet Federation's 14th annual conference which is held at the Mansion House, Dublin, next Tuesday.