By Business & Finance 
eircom Wholesale, Ireland’s largest wholesale communications services provider, has been chosen by Pure Telecom to provide wholesale telecommunications services in a deal valued at €20 million over the next two years.
The partnership will focus on providing high-speed broadband and telephone services to Pure Telecom’s business and residential customers across Ireland. The partnership means Pure Telecom customers can connect to eircom Wholesale’s high speed fibre broadband, which offers speeds of up to 100Mb/s to 1.2 million homes and businesses nationwide, a figure which represents approximately 50% of the total premises in Ireland. This will rise to 70% by 2016, and 80% by 2020, by which time 35% of all premises will have broadband speeds of 1Gb/s (1,000Mb/s).
Pure Telecom’s customers will be amongst the first to access eircom Wholesales 1Gb/s ‘Fibre to the Home’ (FTTH) service when it launches later this year.
Speaking about the agreement, Peter Clarke, director of sales, marketing, international and customer service at eircom Wholesale said: “Partnering with eircom Wholesale means Pure Telecom customers have access to the largest high-speed fibre network in Ireland. With 1,000Mb/s speeds launching in September, Pure’s customers will have access to the fastest broadband speeds available here, ensuring they remain at the cutting edge of broadband developments in Ireland.”
Paul Connell, director, Pure Telecom, added: “Our industry is changing. Our business customers need faster broadband so they can compete competitively both domestically and internationally. Furthermore, consumer demands are increasing. Smartphones, Netflix and social media are among the tools that are redefining the way people communicate and resetting needs and expectations; and not just for city dwellers.
“We aim to provide the same quality of service to rural, as well as urban customers, and that’s why eircom Wholesale was the best solution. This choice was all about the national reach and future proofing of the eircom Wholesale network.”
“This is a partnership for customers who want the best network wrapped in amazing customer service. At Pure Telecom, we provide low cost telecommunications from a friendly and highly responsive customer service team. eircom Wholesale’s network quality, proven know-how and nationwide reach is unsurpassed.”
eircom has just announced plans to extend access to high speed fibre broadband in rural Ireland by extending its fibre network from 1.6 million homes and businesses to 1.9 million nationwide premises. The additional 300,000 homes and businesses are spread across 1,070 communities in all 26 counties, and include 300 communities not currently served with high speed broadband. Speeds of up to 1Gb/s will be available to these additional 300,000 premises, through the use of ‘end to end’ fibre to the home (FTTH) technology.
Appointment notice
I
n other news for eircom, Eavann Murphy has been announced as the new chief commercial officer for eircom Business Solutions.
This newly created position is responsible for the commercial growth of eircom Business Solutions across all enterprise markets through integrating the sales, marketing and portfolio development of the division.
Eavann is an experienced telecommunications executive with over 14 years’ experience in senior commercial positions with Vodafone, across both Enterprise and Consumer markets. She also held senior roles in Vodafone’s consumer division including head of Mobile, head of Post Pay and Roaming and head of Strategy and Roaming. Eavann was also head of Enterprise Markets in the company’s Enterprise Division.
