Jul 3 2014
Tenants moving into a South Dublin apartment development next week will get to experience possibly the fastest home broadband in the world, as 120 apartments in Stillorgan have been fitted out by Magnet Networks with a 1000Mb (1Gb) fibre connection – a full 10x times faster than the current fastest connection available in the majority of Ireland.
Life at 1000Mb will mean downloading HD films in just 7 seconds, while at the same time allowing all the family to enjoy video-chatting and activities such as cloud gaming.
Project Leap by Magnet which delivers 1000Mb Upload as well as Download, is an investment project to future scope Ireland’s connectivity and new calling card of Magnet for engaging with construction firms and resident groups to deploy this technology in new and existing builds. Magnet Project Leap could lead to the future roll-out of 1000Mb fibre broadband to Magnet’s current fibre customers and the possibility of deploying it to new towns and cities in Ireland where there is demand. Magnet Project Leap will involve broadband usage in the connected homes being regularly assessed to determine the impact of ultra-fast speed and connectivity on Irish consumers’ use of devices and applications. It is expected that average household broadband usage will accelerate rapidly in a 1000Mb environment from current average of 22.7GB data per month.
Usage on an average Magnet connection is 22.7GB data downloaded per month of which 68% is Web browsing, 10% Netflix, 7% Google incl. YouTube, 5% Torrents, 0.6% RTE.ie and 9.4% other types of traffic.
1000Mb allows up to potentially 200 Netflix movies to be streamed simultaneously, 100 songs to be downloaded in 3 seconds and 200 family photos uploaded to Facebook in 1 second. The high speed connectivity also gives gamers a critical split-second time advantage over their fellow players in the cloud. It is predicted that the data demands of ‘smart living’ could require this speed of broadband within 5 years, as 4K video content, video chatting, cloud storage access and streaming in particular become part and parcel of everyday family life.
New research* has shown internet speeds in Ireland currently rising at a rate of almost 50% per year, giving the country a ranking of 10th in the world in terms of average speeds.
David O'Donoghue, Building Services Manager for JJ Rhatigan & Co. construction company for the Jade property development off the Stillorgan Road, is looking forward to their new build location having unparalleled broadband speed. “We’re a construction company that is building for the future as shown by Jade, The Grange. Magnet’s Project Leap 1000Mb provides a fully lit fibre connectivity that immediately transforms this new build into one of Ireland’s most desirable places to live for tenants”
“This project is the latest in Magnet’s history of ‘firsts’ in Ireland, as we transfer our leading-edge capability and corporate fibre horsepower in the business sector to the residential environment,” explains Magnet Chief Executive Mark Kellett. “This capability puts us in a unique position being more agile and able to go anywhere in a market where other providers are limited to 100Mb, and allows us to provide a competitive advantage to companies locating here, to the direct benefit of Ireland Inc.”
Based in Clonshaugh in Dublin, Magnet was the first internet service provider to offer 50Mb and subsequently 100Mb fibre to homes in Ireland, and the first to recently launch cloud telecoms through a mobile and pc solution to business. In Aertv, Magnet has also pioneered online TV in Ireland. With its ownership of transatlantic submarine fibre cables, through its parent CVC, its investment in broadband directly influences the decisions of big data corporations to directly invest in Ireland.
Businesses are also known to cluster around super-normal connectivity as Magnet has proved through its subsidiary company in the UK, Velocity1 which is enabling the blossoming ‘smart city’ of Wembley City in London. Velocity1 also has a 10 year history partnering with property developers and events, having last week enabled one of the world’s largest online gaming events – Riot Games: League of Legends - with a 20Gb connection in London’s Wembley Arena which was streamed live to millions worldwide.