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THE HEAD OF Enet, the last bidder involved in the competition to roll out the government’s National Broadband Plan, has suddenly resigned.
Announcing his decision on Twitter last night, Conal Henry said that the “time has come” to hand over the reins to the company.
Speaking to Fora, Henry said: “I have stepped down after 12 years at the company, and that’s all I have to say.”
Henry would not say why he is leaving Enet, saying: “I don’t think that’s important, the ‘why’ isn’t relevant.”
He would not say if his decision was related to, or would have any impact on, the National Broadband Plan.
“I’m not going to comment on that. Everything I’m going to say is out there,” he said, referring to his tweet.
Henry’s decision comes as a surprise, as he had given no indication publicly he was planning to leave the company. Speaking to Fora just over a year ago, the 47-year-old said he was “committed” to Enet.
“I would like to be running a larger business, but the way I want to do that is by making Enet larger,” he said at the time.
“I can see a five-year career here at least and am happy to commit to that, anything beyond five years you can never tell.”
National Broadband Plan
Henry’s sudden departure comes shortly after Eir surprisingly withdrew its bid to roll out the government’s National Broadband Plan.
The scheme aims to give 750,000 homes and businesses nationwide a minimum download speed of 30Mbps.
Eir, which proceeded with its own rural broadband roll out that took 300,000 premises off the list for the state-subsided National Broadband Plan, was thought to have been a strong contender to win the contract.
However, Enet is now the sole bidder left in the race. In a statement this afternoon, the company’s chairman, David C. McCourt, said Henry’s resignation wouldn’t impact Enet’s bid for the State broadband contract.
The firm’s current sales and marketing director, Bartley McElroy, will step into the chief executive role.
Before joining Enet, Henry also worked at world’s biggest-spending advertiser, Procter & Gamble, and served as the commercial director for Ryanair.
Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from Enet.
Written by Paul O’Donoghue and posted on Fora.ie
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Jumping ship before it hits the iceberg that is the Irish B.B. roll out..
@Michelle_Herbert: By the time it’s rolled out here wireless technology will have superseded it in bandwidth and security…
@Vigo the Carpathian: what is this magical solution that can pass through solid objects and never be intercepted?
@Living The Laws: magic.
@Liam Byrne: we all know there is no such thing.
Vigo.
enlighten us there will ya please?
@Living The Laws: Ehm.. Things like WPA3 , 5G and end to end encryption . I’m not sure where you’re getting the idea that a fibre optic cable is secure. It’s actually pretty easy to tap into..
@Vigo the Carpathian: How do you “tap” into fibre Vigo?
Wondering why you think wireless packets cant be sniffed either? Sure evil twin in Costa can provide you the world of information if you really wanted.
@SL Photography: You literally physically tap into the cable.. which is why as with wifi/mobile tech you should use encryption.New encryption technology includes things like Secure Document Transfer Built on Top of Blockchain Technologies so that even if the packets are sniffed they’re pretty useless..
@Vigo the Carpathian: How though? Would you configure SPAN on the interface with a destination where your sniffer is based? Or when you say you literally physically tap into the cable – do you mean the glass and expect the packets to fork? Just wondering where you seen this happen and work?
Doesnt SFTP encrypt document transfer? Why does document transfers which need to be encrypted need to run over “Blockchain Technologies”? If you mail a document and both side are using TLS your document is encrypted.
@Vigo the Carpathian: 5G speeds. Sure 3G or 4G would be adequate if people had line of sight to an aerial installation. Or are you suggesting that, electromagnetically, 5G does things different to these other wireless standards?
Encryption? What do people need that level of encryption for? Seriously. In the rural Ireland? Pull the other one. WPA3….LOL.
Tap into fibre cable? Which means you have to first break into the cable closet or distribution hub. Most of that needs planning permission since it is in the middle of the road. Do you not think someone would notice?
In essence you are saying that 5G will do away with the need for rural fibre based broadband. Are we talking about the same telcos who have, 20 years later, massive black spots where there is no coverage? And that the plan is being shelved to make way for a competitive marketplace that will bring broadband to rural Ireland.
or are you just trolling?
@vigo
one last thing – fibre will go to gigabits. are there wireless technologies operating over 30 miles that can compare to that?
@Living The Laws: also good points. You can spot the network engineers and people who havent a clue :)
@SL Photography: I think you’re imagining a high tech solution to a low tech problem . I mean physically tapping the glass which only requires a beam splitter (and a laptop/mobile phone) and local access to the cable. It’s literally no different to a guy up a phone pole in the 80′s tapping an old copper line. That’s just on a small single target. Check out Operation Tempora where GCHQ tapped massive amounts of data from where undersea cables came ashore and filtered out the individual data of 200 targets. As I’m limited to 800 here here’s a link to explain my block chain point http://www.dataversity.net/blockchain-can-used-secure-sensitive-data-storage/
@Living The Laws: I didn’t say they needed encryption in rural Ireland. You’re the one who said that you wanted me to name technology that could stop signals from being intercepted. That’s why I brought up encryption. Where on earth are you getting the idea that I’d have to break into data hubs to intercept a fibre optic cable. I could literally tap into the cable running from a house or business in seconds using a splitter available on Amazon for a fiver. http://www.ciena.com/insights/articles/How-to-hack-an-optical-fiber-in-minutes-and-how-you-can-secure-it.html You honestly expect the government to run fiber into areas where telcos won’t even go. I’m offering a solution that will get most rural areas off the ground not offering a solution for some guy living up a mountain.
@Living The Laws: It’s nice btw that you seem to think wireless technology development will stop and wait for our government to catch up. 5g will provide at least a stop gap for those who can get a mobile signal but not fibre. Who knows what tech will come along by 2040.. 22 years ago I was using dial up on a 14.4 kbps modem if memory serves. Do you honestly think that in 22 years time we’ll still be using a wire running to every town in the country let alone every house?
@Vigo the Carpathian: wire=cable
@Vigo the Carpathian: Vigo stop embarrassing yourself. You haven’t got a breeze what you are discussing that much is very evident
@Vigo the Carpathian: unfortunately it’s th capacity and back haul from t h e mast that seems to be the problem. If I could get a signal that doesn’t jump from g to 4g and back again as soon as someone else Alison on he mast I’d be grand. Wireless really isn’t a solution at present although if someone offered me stable 100mb wireless broadband at thd moment with one of the big players back haul I’d rip there arms off.
@JustOneScoop: Actually I do “have a breeze” I’m just busy with something else and tapping on a pos phone at the moment.Give me a half an hour to get on a proper machine and I’ll explain exactly what I mean pretty clearly why I believe that fibre broadband cable being run to every town in Ireland isn’t the future. I’m just getting frustrated here at the moment and not getting my points across very well..
@Living The Laws: Right that’s better. Sorry my other replies didn’t make a whole pile of sense or sounded hostile. To answer your first question: “what is this magical solution that can pass through solid objects and never be intercepted?” I believe that for your average rural user mobile broadband technology as opposed to trying to construct a fibre network around Ireland is the way forward. Outside of large businesses ultra fast broadband isn’t really a necessity and with the nubber of one off houses dotted around the country it just simply isn’t feasible. At the moment on a simple mobile 4G broadband connection on 3 in the middle of no where I’m getting 17mb download and 2.4mb upload. I’m actually getting better speeds than my neighbor who’s supposed to be getting ultra fast speeds on the Eir fibre.It doesn’t really matter if it can be intercepted for most users but if they’re really worried they can set up a secure VPN. Not sure what you mean about passing through solid objects though ? What we need instead is an upgrade of the mobile network gong forward to accommodate the newer 5g technology as it comes online.
@SL Photography:” How do you “tap” into fibre Vigo?” I’m pointing out that fiber isn’t 100% secure. On a FTTH connection all you’d need is a cable coupler and a battery powered wireless router converted to an access point to get full remote access to the data stream assuming it’s not encrypted. I’m only using it as an example and not suggesting that accessing the green box for the FFTN. All you need to tap a FTTH cable and data is physical access to it. I’m well aware that wireless packets can be sniffed and there’s not much we can do if someone is determined enough to get what they want however we can use the head a little and make sure we take simple precautions like using different passwords , don’t use public access points , access things like banking on public networks , use point to point encryption ect. Thats for wifi though not mobile internet connection which you should have the encryption switched on anyway. It’s still hackable but not by your average man on the street.
@ed w: Problem is with the fiber we’re being promised is that unless you’re sitting on top on a node you’ll probably not get near anything like is being promised speed-wise either.As I said above Im getting faster mobile speeds than my neighbor because despite paying for fiber he’s sitting at the end of about a mile of copper cable running from where the fiber hits the village and where he lives.Out of interest have you tried a mobile signal amplifier, not an app but a physical bit of kit with a roof to aerial (sold separately) ? Some swear by them and some say they’re useless but if you get one online youve 14 days to try it out or return it.
@Vigo the Carpathian: afraid that was obvious for years, but the idiot minister and other clowns in government had to ensure the they wasted our money anyway. After all that’s about all they’re capable of. Muppets!
Normally CEO’s don’t resign so fast unless some sort of corruption is going to be exposed soon .
@Windy Atlantic Way:
Wild Atlantic Assumption
@Windy Atlantic Way: Possibly to join or open a supply company for a broadband provider.
leo has in covered,,,year 2040 all will be fine
If this wasn’t so important, it would be Hillarious.
I cannot see a national broadband service working or funded. I am in Rural Ireland and we have a terrific service. West Connect. The local service uses a feed from a fast fibre service, and satellite, and serves it line of sight with several small repeaters in the landscape. Its like a large version of the repeater networks around many homes now. We get 20 mbps download and 10 mbps upload. Can get faster if we pay more. Had the service 3 years now. Its consistent and only down briefly twice.
I think what would work is an agency that could train the setting up of the same type of service all over Rural Ireland. Lower cost to set up and farmers like it as they get a cut for allowing repeaters on their land.
This National Broadband 30 mbps seems suspect. No mention of upload speed that I bet will be less than 1 mbps to cut costs … but that is useless for rural businesses using YouTube, Skype, Facebook Live and meetings services now.
Funny that the head of the government backed agency that the only one left resigns before the government backed broadband plan is awarded to the only supplier left in the process….
Definitely a conflict of interest and potentially anti competitive!
@Me_a_monkey: When we had one provider for electricity, gas, telephone, health insurance etc it was significantly cheaper due to the fact they had no competition to share the market. Same could be said for one broadband provider so long as some regulator is kept miles away from setting prices. Customers will decide what is too much.
Hmm..
I think, like the banks before them, EIR have done a number on the government when they siphoned off the 300,000 easy/profitable customers from the original plan.
Elon Musk will have the entire earth covered with 1gig satalite broadband within the next few years making fibre obsolete.
@John Cassin: Tank top boy does not get it.
@John Cassin: he has already launched 2 satellites for this network,there will be 12000 ,at two different levels
Something not right….
Another communications outfit beginning with the letter E and ending in T about to get a sop from a FG government.
Who owns this company
Let’s not mention that “Learing” Kenny puppet master! Sure the only thing that has changed is the number of buffers between him and this new age of corruption and his finger puppet at the head of FG. #CanofPainFromLeo
#OldHatNewHead
#DaffyWaddlesForLeo
#
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