New internet link 'will attract foreign direct investment outside Dublin'
Cork internet provider Nova Broadband today announced that it is to connect customers all over Ireland to the new ultra-high-speed Hibernia Express subsea cable system.
Hibernia Express is a new direct link from Cork to London and New York, which is being switched on this month.
The announcement follows the news at the start of the summer that Cork will become a global IP switching centre, routing high-speed internet traffic to and from USA, UK, Europe and Asia through Hibernia Express, Arctic Fibre and Ireland-France Subsea Cable.
It is hoped that the introduction of Hibernia Express will attract major industry to more parts of Ireland as it ‘decentralises’ the Irish internet infrastructure.
Nova Broadband will provide the "middle-mile" and "last-mile" links necessary to connect Irish businesses and consumers to this international network, thereby bridging the gap from the Garrettstown beach landing to the homes and businesses throughout Ireland who need the capacity.
The network will have an initial capacity of 53 Terrabits, or 53,000 Gigabits, enough capacity to carry the traffic of over 100 million fibre broadband customers at current usage levels.
“We look forward to being involved in this major connectivity step for Cork and Ireland as a whole,” said Nova Broadband MD Dave McDonald.
“Nova's large-scale Irish network will have the benefit of having its main interconnection to the US, UK and onwards to the EU located at the Cork Internet Exchange (CIX), the first point of connection in the state to this new high-speed subsea cable, rather than in the Dublin datacentres, which is fantastic.
“For Irish traffic, Nova will continue to utilise INEX, the Irish Internet Neutral Exchange through its partnership with CIX.
“This major connectivity infrastructure will undoubtedly attract a number of data centres and further position the Cork region and other regional centres outside Dublin for foreign direct investment.”
The announcement follows a €180,000 deal to connect to the Hibernia Express network through the Cork Internet exchange (CIX).
