The Chinese telecommunication equipment vendor Huawei has been selected by Ireland’s Eircom for the supply of Optical Line Terminals and Optical Network Terminals. The value of the supply contract awarded to Huawei is around USD 11 million. Huawei’s network equipment will be deployed in Eircom’s Fiber to the home networks.

Optical Line Terminals are used in central office/telephone exchange that are typically placed at around 20 kilometers from the customer’s home. On the other hand, optical network terminals are installed at the customer’s place. Eircom will deploy ONTs and OLTs in 16 communities where the FTTH construction has already commenced. These include major cities, regional centers and every county town in Ireland.

Eircom plans to deliver 1 Gbps broadband services to its subscribers in these locations from the end of August 2015. In total, 66 communities will be covered by its upgraded fiber optic networks by 2017. This is another important milestone in the journey to bring high-speed broadband to Ireland.

Eircom’s national fiber network is a mix of Fiber to the home (FTTH) and fiber to the cabinet (FTTC) technologies. Eircom started its first FTTx service in May 2013 by offering speeds of up to 70 Mbps. Since then, the telco has steadily increased the speed to 100 Mbps. Eircom uses vectoring technology to reach higher speeds on its FTTC network. In October 2014, Eircom announced plans to offer 1 Gbps broadband to customers covered by its FTTH network.