Benzinga | Jun 9, 2021 10:01AM EDT

General Electric Says National Broadband Ireland Selects Co's Digital Smallworld Physical Network Inventory To Help With Roll Out Of High-Speed Broadband Across Rural Ireland

GE Digital today announced that National Broadband Ireland (NBI) has implemented the company's Smallworld Physical Network Inventory (PNI), part of its Smallworld Geospatial Asset Management suite of solutions to model, manage, and streamline the roll out of Ireland's National Broadband Plan (NBP). The NBP, the largest telecommunications project undertaken by the Irish state, will deliver high-speed broadband to more than 1.1 million people across approximately 544,000 homes in rural Ireland, aiming to ensure that all people and businesses have access to modern and reliable broadband services. The project is one of the biggest and most significant investments in rural Ireland ever, and is viewed as one the most ambitious telecoms projects globally.

The NBP will bridge the digital divide between rural and urban areas throughout Ireland. NBI's role is to design, build and operate a fiber optic network to support this framework. GE Digital's Smallworld PNI solution provides a GIS-based solution that allows telecommunications companies to streamline network operations with a comprehensive and integrated view of the entire network.

The Smallworld solution was chosen to not only maximize the efficiency of the network plan, design, and build phase of the project, but also the operation of this fiber network infrastructure for many years to come. The solution underpins the fully integrated ordering, connection management, installation and activation, and assurance processes.

"National Broadband Ireland is leading the way in designing, building, and operating Ireland's new broadband network on behalf of the Irish Government and GE Digital's Smallworld solutions have always been a key element of our program," said Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer for National Broadband Ireland. "Our reliance on quality inventory data is fundamental to the success of the broadband service roll out. With Smallworld PNI in place, we are able to have a single consolidated view of the network, supporting the entire plan, design, and build processes and ultimately the success of the entire venture through bridging the digital divide."

The project accounts for approximately 23% of the population in Ireland and will cover 96% of the country's land mass, with 146,000 km of fiber being deployed. Smallworld PNI will deliver a centralized database for managing the entire network, providing access to network information across NBI.

"GE Digital is proud to be part of this transformational project, providing critical infrastructure and high- speed Internet to rural communities in Ireland," said Jim Walsh, General Manager of GE Digital's Grid Software business. "Our solutions offer telecommunications companies with software to support such large fiber roll outs. In these unprecedented times, high-speed Internet access is critical to allow everyone to carry on remote working and learning."

More information about the National Broadband Plan can be found here.

More information about GE Digital's Smallworld Geospatial Asset Management solution can be found here.