The provision of Tier 1 international fibre connectivity from Cork has been a major focus for the Chamber and having extensively lobbied decision makers and worked in partnership with many stakeholders over this period to help realise this project, we are now very excited for what it will mean for both Cork and for Ireland. This piece of enabling infrastructure will add a vital new resource to our already strong multi-national sector while also opening the region up to new sectors operating in cloud based technologies and data centre provision. Ireland’s infrastructure will be significantly enhanced as a result of this investment and will position the country and this region in particular to grow the ICT, financial services and digital sectors in years to come.
Tier 1 international data connectivity from Cork represents an economic opportunity not just for the Cork region but all regions along the Atlantic Corridor. This is required to underpin the continued growth of the Tech Market and to meet traffic demands, both data and voice, which are growing exponentially. Express will offer a competitive edge by virtue of the lowest latency to the US, enhanced resilience while also lessening the necessity for companies to route their information through Dublin to reach the UK or the US which should impact positively on the cost of data transfer.
Hibernia Networks Will Connect High Performance Express To Cork, Ireland Providing Direct Access to North America And The United Kingdom
Express cable manufacturing on schedule for target service timeframe of summer 2015 including the connection to Ireland
Hibernia Networks, a provider of global telecommunications services, will land a direct connection of its Express cable to Cork, Ireland via a new landing station. Hibernia is the only transatlantic cable provider to own and operate three diverse cable landing stations in Ireland and the only provider with six diverse routes connecting the island of Ireland to North America and Europe on its wholly owned and operated infrastructure.
The connection of Express to Southern Ireland will serve as an economic catalyst for the entire region. Ireland has become a crucial market for data centers and cloud services globally. The connection to Hibernia Express provides Ireland the strategic connectivity it needs to support its technology community for the next 25 years and further adds to Ireland’s preeminent position in the global cloud infrastructure and technology services marketplace.
According to Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture, Food, the Marine and Defence, Simon Coveney T.D. who officially announced the connection, “The extension of Express to Cork has significant international business implications and will make Ireland that much more attractive to both established players and tech startups alike. This high capacity, direct transatlantic connection will grant Irish companies the opportunity to expand their global footprint. The new link will provide direct connectivity to both the United Kingdom and North America.
In addition to Cork Chamber’s influence in working in partnership with key economic-policy decision-makers to help deliver this tangible result, a new report, conducted jointly by Ericsson, Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, in 33 OECD countries, shows that doubling the broadband speed for an economy increases GDP by 0.3% (0.1% for Regional Ireland = €160m). The study further concluded that for every 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration, GDP increases by 1 per cent. The introduction of a new Tier-1 connection into Regional Ireland will effectively more than double available internet capacity at a price comparable to that available in Dublin.
