AirSpeed Telecom has signed a €500,000 deal with concrete firm Kilsaran to install and maintain a managed wide-area network across the company’s 25 sites around Ireland.

Kilsaran, based in Co Louth, supplies ready-mixed concrete as well as a wide range of paving, tarmac and other building materials.

The company acquired many of the assets of building materials company Cemex this year.

With many of the manufacturing and quarry facilities located in remote areas around Ireland, Kilsaran said it has always faced the challenge of working in areas that traditional telecommunications solutions can’t reach.

The data network provided by Airspeed will be used to support a variety of business applications at Kilsaran, including a voice-over IP service, a document management system and a fleet-tracking system for more than 300 Kilsaran vehicles.

AirSpeed Telecom managing director Liam O’Kelly said it was a very intricate project for Kilsaran as it involved multiple sites throughout the country and the system had to ensure resiliency, redundancy and failover for high-criticality systems.

“This IT upgrade has now positioned the company to operate in a more effective manner in the future and take advantage of growth opportunities.”

Mr O’Kelly was last year named Entrepreneur of the Year at the European Business Awards.

About 17,000 companies entered the awards, with four Irish companies making it to the finals, which took place in Athens.

The company provides business broadband services countrywide, notably in rural parts of the country such as the Aran Islands.

Its clients include RTÉ, Dairygold, Irish Distillers, UDG Healthcare, and Vhi Healthcare.