Enet, Ireland’s largest wholesale, open-access network provider, has opened its state-of-the-art Network Operations Centre, which is part of the new €1m headquarters facility in Limerick. The rest of the building will be gradually opened over the coming months in line with government guidelines, with a formal opening later in the Autumn. The business, which has offices in Limerick and Dublin, has moved from its previous premises to a new standalone 14,000 sq ft location in the National Technological Park, Plassey.
Enet has been headquartered in Limerick since 2004 and the business currently has over 120 employees across the Limerick and Dublin offices, with 75 located in Limerick. The new, state-of-the-art Network Operations Centre (NOC) will operate on a 24/7 basis all year round, monitoring 5400km of fibre infrastructure, including the Irish State’s Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), proprietary metro networks, a unique dark fibre backhaul infrastructure, as well as one of the largest licensed wireless networks in the country. Following this expansion of its premises, Enet is also now hiring for a number of new engineer roles within the NOC.
Rigorous health and safety protocols, in line with Government advice, have been put in place for staff returning to work in the new facility.
Peter McCarthy, Enet Group CEO, said: “Now, more than ever, it’s important that businesses like ours continue to make sensible investments that will prime us for future growth, so this is a very proud day for Enet as we scale up our Limerick operations. This new state-of-the-art facility doubles the size of the premises we have in Limerick and will enable us to continue to deliver a genuinely world-class service for our customers.”
Specifically commenting on the new Network Operations Centre, John Gilvarry, Chief Technology Officer at Enet, said: “This is an important investment milestone for the business. It demonstrates our ongoing commitment to our customers and to delivering a genuinely world-class service for them. With this new NOC in place, we expect heightened visibility of all monitored interfaces and links so that we can focus our troubleshooting, reduce our mean time to repair and manage a much larger infrastructure estate.”
In Limerick City alone, the fibre network operated by Enet, known as the Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), provides connectivity to thirty retail service providers and has allowed for greater choice, quality and competitiveness of broadband services in the area. The high quality of the MAN and the high-bandwidth services available over the network has played an important role in the city securing a significant share of foreign direct investment.
“The MANs play a pivotal role in removing any telecoms or bandwidth barriers and introducing greater choice and competition to the market. The success of this strategy is underlined by the performance of the Limerick MAN, which is one of the largest of the MANs in the country,” Mr. McCarthy added.