Aurora Telecom plays a key role in enabling and sustaining Ireland’s digital infrastructure.
Part of Gas Networks Ireland, Aurora Telecom was established in 2002 to address the country’s increasing need for a resilient, high-capacity and shared fibre-optic network.
Today Aurora Telecom operates Ireland’s most advanced dark fibre network, spanning 1,600km across 15 counties, enabling connectivity for a diverse customer base including the top five global content providers, hyperscale data centre operators, subsea cable carriers and other large data users such as third-level institutions, pharmaceutical manufacturers and national Government agencies.
Dark fibre means that it is not used by Aurora Telecom and is reserved exclusively for its customers who “light it” themselves. Fibre optic cables are made of thin glass fibre strands that can transfer information at astonishing speed using light. Dark fibre is the unused fibre optic cables that Aurora Telecom’s customers can utilise to create their own dedicated network.
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“Our network is open access,” says Sean O’Donnell, general manager at Aurora Telecom. “If another telecoms provider is building new infrastructure in a county or city, it is for themselves and themselves alone. They may offer services to other operators on a wholesale basis, but they won’t make their infrastructure available to them.
“Aurora Telecom is unique in operating a dark fibre backhaul network,” he continues. “When a customer comes on board we give them their own dedicated strands of fibre. They install their equipment at each end, light it up themselves and it is entirely for their own use. They are not restricted in any way. The only limitations are from their own equipment. It’s like having your own dedicated lane on a motorway.”
In addition to a dedicated fibre line, Aurora Telecom customers also enjoy 100 per cent network availability on our national backhaul network. “Quality and resilience are at the core of our proposition,” says O’Donnell. “We have an unrivalled record in the industry for the highest levels of network availability – 100 per cent uptime. This resilience ensures that our customers do not experience any impact on their mission critical operations even during significant weather events such as the recent floods or Storm Éowyn last year. Indeed, we had a number of approaches from organisations who had come to recognise the critical importance of data connectivity following recent storms and weather events.”
That resilience is linked to Aurora Telecom’s heritage as part of Gas Networks Ireland, he says. “We share the same ethos as Gas Networks Ireland when it comes to the development, maintenance and safeguarding of nationally critical infrastructure. We have achieved 100 per cent uptime because of how well constructed, monitored and maintained our infrastructure is by Aurora Telecom.”
Looking back, O’Donnell explains that the Aurora Telecom story began during the dotcom boom. “It felt like every road in the country was being dug up by telecoms providers putting in new infrastructure,” he recalls. “Gas Networks Ireland was upgrading its own network back then and it made sense to put in a dark fibre network at the same time. This would allow us to provide a service for multiple operators, reducing the need for them to develop their own infrastructure.”
“Aurora Telecom now has over 1,600km of infrastructure,” he says, “and are building more as we speak.”
The latest project will connect Limerick to Dublin. “This is a major project to connect the two cities as well as major towns along the route. It will strengthen the network and Aurora Telecom’s offering further and open up that corridor to new large data users who may wish to locate outside of Dublin. We will be breaking ground this year on that.”
The Aurora Telecom network differs from other telecoms networks in a number of respects, he explains. “We have two types of network: Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) in Dublin, Ennis and Shannon, which are similar to the electricity or gas distribution networks and serve businesses and large data users in those areas; then we have the national backhaul network, which is the equivalent of the high pressure gas transmission network.”
He notes that from the early 2000s, the MANs programme was a State-funded broadband infrastructure initiative launched by the Irish Government to address regional digital connectivity gaps and support balanced economic development. While this reached 90 towns and cities, these digital zones lacked high-capacity open access connecting them. “Part of our objective was to connect these towns and other large data users in the regions including business parks, universities, data centres, mobile and terrestrial telecoms operators, pharmaceutical plants and so on. We do not serve residential customers. Our customers and other providers do that. We are the carrier’s carrier.”
Aurora Telecom plays a key role in maintaining Ireland’s global connectivity, ensuring the country stays linked to the digital world. Building on Ireland’s early role in global communications – symbolised by the first transatlantic telephone cables connecting at Valentia Island, Co Kerry – Aurora Telecom’s fibre network provides the advanced terrestrial network that connects with submarine cables landing on Ireland’s coastline, ensuring the country can participate fully in global digital economy.
One example where Aurora played a pivotal role is the IRIS subsea cable. This cable provides a direct link from Galway to Iceland and further diversifies connectivity across the country. “This has positive implications for the west of Ireland, potentially opening up the entire region for new investment,” says O’Donnell.
“Our network is ideal for subsea cable connections,” he adds. “The majority of subsea cables that have landed on our coastline since 2017 from the US and Europe, connect to Aurora Telecom’s network. Ours is the network of choice for these subsea cables because of the quality of the network and what we do. If we connect a customer, we give them a direct path to where they want to be and that’s what the subsea cable operators are looking for.”
‘About 98 per cent of all global data communications are carried on subsea cables and fibre, not satellites’
Mindful of the importance of those international connections and Ireland’s heritage in that regard, Aurora Telecom is one of the sponsors of the Valentia Island Symposium on Subsea Cable Security and Resilience, which will be held in April. The Valentia Transatlantic Cable Foundation, which is the organiser of the Symposium, is also supporting a Unesco World Heritage Site application, further underscoring the region’s global significance.
“This is an important international event at a time of growing threats to submarine cables and pipelines,” O’Donnell says. “It will bring together Irish and international experts to explore the challenges of safeguarding critical undersea cable networks.”
Back on dry land, Aurora Telecom is providing the connectivity to enable cloud services, enterprise networks and critical public services to operate reliably and securely. “Our network also complements public investments such as the National Broadband Plan by providing the high-capacity backbone that sits behind last-mile connectivity.
“We are also supporting balanced regional economic development by offering the connectivity to enable large data users to locate outside of Dublin and the other major cities. We often get approached by landowners and developers looking for access to our network map so that they can show that sites have access to high-capacity fibre optic network connectivity.”
O’Donnell describes the future as interesting and exciting: “For example, we are currently carrying out testing on fibre sensing. This is cutting edge technology that can detect encroachment on our networks by diggers and other equipment above the ground by sensing the vibrations and other changes to ground conditions they cause. It can also sense minute temperature and other changes. Artificial intelligence plays a key role in this. We will make that data available to other utilities.”
Another exciting development is in the area of quantum encryption. “We are working with a leading [Irish] academic institution and an industry partner on trials of quantum encryption,” he says. “All data communications are protected by encryption but there is a fear that current encryption could be cracked in minutes by quantum computing when it arrives. These trials are aimed at developing encryption that can’t be cracked by quantum computers.”
Some things won’t change though. “Nothing is going to beat fibre,” says O’Donnell. “About 98 per cent of all global data communications are carried on subsea cables and fibre, not satellites. We will continue to develop our network and keep our customers at the core of our business.”
