Eircom’s Network division has laid more than 7,000 kilometres of fibre since it began its fibre rollout strategy in 2012, according to a new video to emerge from the group.

Last month, Eircom reached the milestone of the one millionth home and business premises to be passed by fibre-based broadband.

Eircom’s fixed-line core network contains more than 13,000 kilometres of fibre cable.

The operator is now more than halfway through its €1.5bn investment programme, which includes €400m for fibre broadband rollout.

Eircom said some 7,000 kilometres of fibre has been installed to connect local areas since 2012, when the next generation access (NGA) programme began.

When the operator’s high-speed broadband access network is completed in 2016, it will have laid 10,000 kilometres of fibre to street cabinets.

Eircom to achieve initial rollout to 1.4m premises ahead of target

Eircom has said fibre broadband will be available to every town in Ireland with a population of 900 residents or more by 2016 – that’s 865 communities.

Currently, 250 communities across Ireland are connected with high-speed fibre broadband.

A spokesman for Eircom explained that Eircom’s existing 1.4m fibre footprint target will be achieved earlier than planned in December 2015.

The planned footprint is going to be extended to 1.6m premises a year later, a full 200,000 extra premises.

The network, which was built faster and achieved a greater level of coverage than Eircom’s peers, including BT, Deutsche Telekom and AT&T, is currently being used by 15 local operators to sell broadband to consumers and businesses.