Cellnex brings further connectivity to Laois following community outreach
New infrastructure for Vicarstown will see improved mobile signal for Three and Vodafone customers
Laois County Council worked with Cellnex following connectivity issues raised during pandemic
Working closely with Laois County Council, Cellnex, Ireland’s largest independent telecoms infrastructure provider, has recently delivered new infrastructure to Vicarstown, Co Laois that will transform connectivity for consumers and businesses in the area.
The new infrastructure has enabled Three and Vodafone to launch improved services to customers in the Vicarstown area, following local community action during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The need for improved connectivity during the Covid-19 pandemic was highlighted by Laois County Council, as working and learning from home became more commonplace. The local authority worked with Cellnex to get a viable solution to the connectivity blackspot and Cellnex has now installed its first multi-operator street work solution in a rural setting.
Multi-operator solutions are beneficial for rural areas, as they allow multiple mobile network operators to host services from a single piece of infrastructure. This cuts down on the proliferation of masts in rural areas, while future proofing services for the potential addition of new mobile network operators.
The new services will be a significant boost to local residents, sports clubs and businesses with Annanough GAA Club, Crean Engineering, Barrowline Cruisers and Barrow Bike Hire all to be found in the area.
The issues raised by the local authority became the catalyst for the launch of their Get Connected initiative aimed at addressing communities who suffer from poor mobile coverage, in Laois in May 2021. Get Connected is seeking to empower local communities to achieve better connectivity, through requesting a review of their current services and the delivery of improved infrastructure. Get Connected received strong community interest from multiple areas in Laois, with further services expected to go live in the county imminently.
Colin Cunningham, Managing Director of Cellnex Ireland, said:
“We would like to thank Laois County Council for raising the issues that were being experienced in Vicarstown due to poor connectivity. Without that type of community dialogue, rural communities all around Ireland will be denied vital connectivity, which has proven to be so important over the last 18 months. Well connected rural areas have opportunities to enhance business, tourism and sporting activities, for the benefit of current and future generations.”
Antoinette Brennan, Broadband Officer with Laois County Council, said:
“Laois County Council has seen over the last two years how important connectivity is to local economies, in allowing people to work and learn from places they would not have previously. Solutions such as what we now have in place in Vicarstown are vital for communities to grow and develop, and we look forward to seeing further enhancements of Laois’s connectivity in the near future.”
For further information, please contact:
Cellnex Ireland: Andrew Smith, Murray, +353 83 076 5717, asmith@murraygroup.ie
About Cellnex Ireland
The business launched in 2015 with the acquisition of 300 sites from Irish state forestry company Coillte, and through further acquisitions and investment now has as portfolio of over 1,800 sites. Cellnex specialises in maximising the efficient use of tower infrastructure through hosting the equipment of multiple operators on its sites, thereby reducing costs for users and reducing the proliferation of unnecessary towers. www.cellnex.ie
About Cellnex Telecom
Cellnex Telecom is Europe’s leading operator of wireless telecommunications infrastructures with a portfolio of 130,000 sites including forecast roll-outs up to 2030. Cellnex operates in Spain, Italy, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Austria, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Portugal. Cellnex’s business is structured in four major areas: telecommunications infrastructure services; audiovisual broadcasting networks, mission and business critical networks and solutions for smart urban infrastructure and ser-vices management (Smart cities e the “Internet of Things” (IoT)).
The company is listed on the Spanish stock exchange and is part of the se-lective IBEX 35 and EuroStoxx 100 indices. It is also part of the FTSE4GOOD, CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), MSCI, Sustainalytics and “Standard Ethics” sustainability indexes. For more information, visit www.cellnextelecom.com