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The Speed Fibre Group, which is an open access fibre infrastructure provider (managing or owning 5,400km of fibre) that is ultimately backed by Cordiant Capital, has today announced that they’ve completed the previously announced (here) acquisition of BT’s Irish wholesale fibre and enterprise business unit (BT Communications Ireland Ltd.).
The transaction, which forms part of BT Group UK’s continued efforts to reduce their international operations, includes BT’s domestic network infrastructure, over 400 customers across a c.3,400km network of owned and operated fibre, and associated teams supporting wholesale fibre and business enterprises.
The deal also comprises a long-term agreement for BT and Speed Fibre Group to source connectivity for their respective customers from each other, which supports BT’s desire to “retain a strong presence in the Irish market to deliver connectivity, cloud and security services to multinationals and large organisations“.
Post-transaction, BT still expects to maintain over 400 employees in Ireland, with offices in Dublin and regionally, and connections to BT’s global network infrastructure and propositions. The deal does NOT include BTCIL’s customer base of multinationals, large Irish organisations, the Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS), associated employees, and the recently divested data centre business.
Statement by Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited
The acquisition of BTCIL enhances Speed Fibre’s ability to deliver advanced connectivity solutions through the integration of BTCIL’s complementary capabilities and domestic customer base. By combining resources, Speed Fibre expects to achieve greater operational efficiencies and deliver a broader range of connectivity products and services for customers across Ireland, supporting the growing requirements of hyperscale and edge data centres, multi-nationals, local Irish businesses, and government agencies.
The expanded network will be well placed to support the increasing capacity needed to underpin the rapid uptake in artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This addition to the Speed Fibre platform represents a significant step in CORD’s strategy to build platforms at scale in line with its Buy, Build & Grow model in key digital markets such as Ireland.