The Irish Times writes that backers of a proposed USD15 million telecoms cable between the Republic of Ireland and the UK have held talks with the government and IDA Ireland about investing USD100 million into a direct link between Cork and France. The new plan, which would dramatically improve direct bandwidth capacity between Ireland and mainland Europe, could see work on the cable starting in Spring 2012, the paper said. It is understood the new cable would target a number of multinationals based in the Cork region, such as EMC, Activision/Blizzard and Apple – all of which require high capacity, high speed links.
The paper says that next week the cable ship Cable Innovator will begin laying the main cable for CeltixConnect’s link between Dublin and Holyhead, in Wales. The CEO of CeltixConnect, Diane Hodnett, expects customers to start transmitting traffic on the cable at the end of January. Launched in late-2009, the CeltixConnect project was originally intended to be completed in 2010, but was delayed after some key US investors withdrew from the project. However, CeltixConnect is now 70% funded by US fund CC Equity Investors and 30% in the form of debt from South African bank Investec, she said. The new CeltixConnect cable will pass through the East Point Business Park in Dublin and on to the city’s international finances services centre. On the Welsh side, the 131km cable will connect to the Welsh Assembly-funded Parc Cybi business park in Holyhead. From there it will connect to networks linking Manchester, London and the rest of Europe. Capacity on CeltixConnect will be sold primarily to telcos and ISPs, mobile operators and some multinationals in the technology space which have sizeable bandwidth requirements.