Aurora Telecom

Last week, Gas Networks Ireland’s iBelong Family Network hosted “The Magic of Reading" in our Dublin and Cork offices, a special event celebrating Irish children's literature. Our colleagues Sean O'Donnell, Eimear Hickey, Bożena Niemczyk and James Freeman brought their children to the event to enjoy a day of interactive activities, games, and even meet with the Book Doctor who “prescribed” and helped the children pick books to read with their parents. This event was part of Gas Networks Ireland’s iBelong DEI programme, which alongside four other networks (Women’s Network, the Rainbow Network, Culture and Ethnicity Network; and the Neurodiversity and Ability Network) promotes diversity, equity and inclusion across the entire organisation including Aurora Telecom. #DiversityandInclusion #AuroraTelecom

In this article Stacie Pascale of Aqua Comms provides an update on new developments in the subsea cable network industry and an interesting link to AEC-1 where Aurora Telecom is highlighted. Owned and operated by Aqua Comms, AEC-1, is Ireland’s first dedicated subsea fibre-optic network interconnecting New York, Dublin, and London. Delivered in early 2016, the 5,536km submarine cable system provides secure, low latency, high-quality transatlantic connectivity with diverse backhaul fibre to additional Points of Presence (PoPs) in the United States, Ireland, and United Kingdom. Aurora Telecom was proud to have provided the terrestrial fibre route for this system and this valued relationship will continue as Aqua Comms bring their new fibre pair live. With an increased focus on sustainability, it is excellent to hear that technology updates for the new fibre pair will lower the power consumption per megabyte and reduce regen requirements at the different cable landing stations. Aurora Telecom is currently carrying out a review with the Sustainability team in our parent company Gas Networks Ireland, to see how we can reduce the carbon emission levels at our co-locations facilities and provide a greener solution to our customers. https://lnkd.in/eJ4Gph3A

As global bandwidth demand grows exponentially, a key to our network being considered one of the most modern in Ireland, is our partnership with Corning Optical Communications As Network Manager for Aurora Telecom, our colleague Phelim M Dolan, explains why this relationship is so important. “Aurora Telecom prides itself on deploying and operating a robust and reliable network. Due to our design principles; build standards and extensive network monitoring; our network has an unrivalled 99.999% availability for the past 9 years. Using Corning cables across the entire network footprint; we leverage Corning’s expertise, innovation, and reliability in delivery, to benefit our networks performance and our customers satisfaction of service. With both G652.d and G654.e exceeding ITU-T standards, we are proud to exclusively deploy Corning cable to support and provide reliable and high performing connectivity across the country. Furthermore, Corning's commitment to sustainability aligns with Aurora Telecoms objectives. By promoting energy-efficient solutions and eco-friendly manufacturing practices, Aurora Telecom and our customers are benefiting from a reduced environmental footprint and are therefore contributing to a greener, more sustainable future.” #AuroraTelecom #Connectivity #DarkFibre

Thank you to Andrew Edison, Ciarán Delaney and Staffan Göjeryd for carrying our colleague James Freeman to a second place finish at the Cellusys golf day at the Royal Dublin Society on Monday, June 17th. Thank you also to all the team at Cellusys for organising a great event. It was a fantastic way to kick off our attendance at #CCT2024 and catch-up with some of our current customers and partners from across the cloud, content, and telecom sectors. The past two days at #CCT2024 have provided us a unique opportunity to learn and discuss global connectivity and industry innovations with peers from across the industry and we look forward to building on these new relationships going forward.

Our colleagues Sean O'Donnell, James Freeman, Eimear Hickey have travelled to London to attend the two day #SubNetsEMEA 2024 Conference. Subsea cables play a vital economic role by enhancing Ireland’s digital connectivity internationally and day one of the conference has provided great information about recent developments and future trends for the subsea industry. The conference is also a great opportunity to catch up with several of our strategic partners, as Aurora Telecom provides the advanced terrestrial network that interconnects with key submarine landing points in Ireland including IRIS, AEC1, AEC2 (Havfrue), Havhingsten and Celtic Connex. With over 1,000 subsea connectivity leaders at the conference, we are looking forward to day two and the opportunity to make several new connections. #AuroraTelecom #KeepingTheWorldConnected #SubNetsEMEA

Both Aurora Telecom and Gas Networks Ireland are committed to health and wellbeing and support a culture of healthy behaviour and attitudes in the workplace. Recently our colleagues Sean O'Donnell, Bożena Niemczyk, Eimear Hickey and James Freeman (and family members) participated in the “Let’s Get Moving Challenge” that ran from April 22nd to May 19th. Split into different teams, this movement challenge provided a great opportunity to get to know colleagues across the wider organisation while getting outside and improving our fitness at the same time. Well done to everyone who participated and a big thank you to our family members who were pushing us to get up the leaderboard. #AuroraTelecom #Wellbeing #LetsGetMoving

As part of our continued commitment to people and professional development, our colleagues Eimear Hickey, Sean O'Donnell, Barry O'Brien and Phelim M Dolan took the opportunity to attend a three day training course titled “Winning Negotiation Strategies” with UCD Smurfit Executive Development. Led by Programme Director Stephen Boyle, the course provided a fantastic learning environment for the team to role play real life examples from their respective work and improve their individual negotiation techniques. The course was also an excellent opportunity to network with other professionals across a range of sectors and learn more about best practice in developing negotiation strategies.

As a division of Gas Networks Ireland, sections of Aurora Telecom network ducts and cable are laid adjacent to the gas main pipelines and therefore benefit from the standards applied to safeguarding high-pressure gas pipelines. It was great to see the new Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) safety campaign from Gas Networks Ireland launch recently, featuring its new ambassador, Keith the Badger. This is an excellent service that helps ensure the safety of anyone intending to complete excavation work on or near the gas network. Services such as DBYD and other measures Gas Networks Ireland use help to safeguard high pressure gas pipelines and ensure that there is a minimal chance of disruption caused to our dark fibre network. This provides our customers an additional layer of security and has enabled an unbeaten record in the industry, for the highest levels of network uptime and operational availability. We would encourage anyone planning any excavation work around their home or business to note the message of the new campaign and utilise the DBYD service. You can check for the location of gas pipes and our telecoms ducts by calling 1800 42 77 47 or emailing [email protected]. You can also register for a Dial Before You Dig Online account. Visit- https://lnkd.in/eAHDm2Bh

Our colleague Eimear Hickey joined fellow members of our iBelong Family and Neurodiversity & Ability Networks this week to hand out sunflower kits as part of an exciting initiative to increase knowledge and awareness about hidden disabilities. Eimear's son Evan was diagnosed with dyspraxia 2 years ago. Many disabilities such as Dyspraxia aren’t immediately obvious to others, making it initially challenging for people and parents to understand what type of support is required. When researching, Eimear found useful resources such as Dyspraxia Ireland and Facebook pages such as DCA warriors that allowed her talk to other parents in similar circumstances and secure support from the local school which Evan attends. As part of this great initiative, colleagues in Aurora Telecom and Gas Networks Ireland are provided with a ‘sunflower growth kit’ with seeds, instructions, and tips on how to grow their very own sunflower at home. Hidden Disabilities Sunflower - Ireland is a simple tool that allows people to voluntarily share that they have a disability or condition that may not be immediately apparent – and that they may need a helping hand, understanding, or more time in shops, at work, on transport, or in public spaces.

Aurora Telecom would like to inform customers that a Status Orange weather event (Storm Kathleen) is scheduled to hit Ireland tomorrow. The storm will mainly affect Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Galway, and Mayo on Saturday, April 6th. As power supplies may be affected during this period; our NOC and maintenance teams will be on high alert and will continually monitor the network and weather events as they unfold. As part of our efforts to maintain network availability, our co-location facilities are equipped with onsite backup 50KVA 3 Phase diesel generators, with more than 24 hours backup cover. Our fibre will also be monitored, as always, with the latest Optical Network Management Systems. For service affecting network emergencies, please contact 1800 427 399 (Ireland) or 353 1 203 0120 (International). Alternatively, you can email us at [email protected]. https://www.met.ie/