EIRCOM PLANS to invest €20 million on “ultra fast” fibre broadband trials in Sandyford, Co Dublin, and Wexford town next spring.

The trials will be available to about 10,000 residential and business customers.

In a potentially significant move, Eircom said it would allow its competitors access to the trials for the technology, which will support faster download speeds and cloud computing applications.

Chief executive Paul Donovan said he hoped this would be a precursor to collaboration among operators in building a fibre-based network across the country.

Independent consultants have indicated that such a network could cost €2.5 billion.

“Hopefully this will get the industry aligned on how we drive fibre on a more pervasive basis over the coming years,” Mr Donovan said.

He acknowledged that, in the past, Eircom has been “slow to open up its infrastructure” to rivals. “Here, we are taking an entirely different approach – one of open access before it is even built. Sensible deployment of infrastructure in the country is the only way to pass the economic test to roll out fibre to individual houses,” he said.

Mr Donovan declined to be drawn on how collaboration between the telcos might operate and stopped short of calling for financial support from the State.

He said it made no sense for telecom operators to build competing fibre infrastructures in a market where revenues total €4 billion a year and are in decline.

Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan welcomed Eircom’s announcement. “I must commend Eircom for providing these trials on an open-access basis, available for all service providers,” he said.

Eircom last week briefed 50 executives from 12 telecom operators about its plans. It said six of the groups expressed an interest in participating in the fibre trials.

Vodafone, Ireland’s biggest mobile operator and a large player in the fixed-line market, said: “Eircom presented an outline of their proposed trial to industry last week and asked for a consultation period with operators to look at how it could potentially work in practice. At this point, it is too early to say how we may or may not progress.”

BT said: “BT looks forward to receiving further details from Eircom on its proposed plans . . . this will enable us to decide our level of participation.”

Mobile operator O2 said it would study the proposals carefully before deciding if it would take part in the trials.

The trials will offer broadband speeds of up to 150MB/sec. Eircom said this would allow for “lightning speed” broadband.

Donovan says no sign of green shoots in economy

SALES OF telecoms services are a good barometer of economic activity and, just two weeks before the end of Eircom’s financial year, its chief executive Paul Donovan said there are no signs of green shoots in the Irish economy.

“We do not see any signs of economic recovery in the year to date,” he told reporters at a briefing yesterday. “We continue to focus relentlessly on transforming our cost base, which is something that we do actually have control over.”

In May, Eircom reported a 9 per cent drop in sales for the nine months to the end of March.

Fixed-line revenues declined by 9 per cent, while mobile sales were 6 per cent down. Asked whether the trends in the reduction of landlines persist, Mr Donovan said: “Yes. The trends which you have seen over the past year or so, broadly speaking, are continuing.”

He said Eircom would complete its 1,200 voluntary reductions in headcount by September, six months ahead of schedule.

Having indicated in May that further cuts would be necessary, he declined to say how many more jobs Eircom would seek to shed.