Smart raises EUR55 million for expansion

Irish operator Smart Telecom has raised EUR55.2 million to develop its network via the issue of 150 million new ordinary shares and a debt-for-equity conversion. Formed in 2000, Smart Telecom claims to be the fastest growing provider of residential, business and metro telecom services in Ireland. Traditionally a reseller of eircom’s voice telephony products, in February 2005 Smart launched its first LLU DSL service, rolling out a 2Mbps service in Dublin for EUR35 a month. The telco is deploying a Resilient Packet Ring (RPR), MPLS-based IP next generation network and plans to expand the service nationally.