Metropolitan Area Networks (“MANs”) are local authority-led infrastructure projects which are State owned, underground telecommunications networks that are located in regional cities and towns. They consist of carrier-neutral duct and fibre rings linking the main commercial and public buildings to “co-location centres” where service providers locate their telecommunications equipment and access the network. These facilities are available to service providers to enable them offer high-speed broadband to their retail customers without having to build their own networks. MANs routes were designed to specifically target key business areas for which the availability of high speed broadband services would be attractive, such as:
- Technology, business and industrial parks
- Primary businesses within each urban area
- Education Sector, Health Sector and local government
- General business and commercial clusters
The routes were also designed to run in close proximity to the main hubs of the service providers which were already present in each urban area for easy connectivity.
Enet is responsible for the provision of wholesale telecommunications services on commercial terms to service providers. The number and location of buildings, be they state owned or otherwise connected to the MANs network is an operational matter for the Management Services Entity (enet) and the relevant service providers.
