The B2B connectivity provider part owned by SSE Group, connected three key council data centres and 31 public buildings and community establishments within Perth, Scotland, completing the work in late July, two months ahead of schedule.
Peter Asman, MD for public sector and enterprise at Neos Networks said: “The importance of effective collaboration and constant customer contact has been key to the success of this project. Working in conjunction with Perth & Kinross Council has been outstanding and is a prime example of how public sector bodies and service providers can work in partnership to transform society and secure a gigabit-capable digital future for the community.
"The joint effort from everybody involved has helped us complete the project on time and to a high standard. We are all very excited to see the benefits that our deployed full fibre connectivity can bring to the region.”
With the network spanning 19.5km, Neos Networks' delivery team was required to connect buildings close to an existing 10km duct network owned by the council and used for traffic lights and CCTV, utilising existing SSE duct and building new duct where necessary. However, using existing ducts was far from straight forward – Neos said technical concerns identified during early surveys resulted in "a month’s redesign work, which was undertaken in just two weeks".
Matt Warman MP – the latest politician to suggest using water pipes for fibre – said of this project: "I'm delighted that this game-changing gigabit network in Perth has now been completed thanks to funding from the UK government.
"Across Scotland we're busy upgrading hundreds of hospitals, schools, libraries and other public buildings to gigabit broadband and will soon be announcing more areas that will benefit from our record £5 billion fund to connect hard-to-reach homes and businesses," Warman added.
Last week, Warman started a competition, called Fibre in Water, to allocate up to £4 million to pilot projects that can use pipes to deliver fibre in hard-to-reach areas.
Funded by the government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the project received £1 million of funding from UK Government and was supported by Council and Building Digital UK (BD-UK) officials from procurement through to completion.
The project also utilised just under £500,000 of UK Government funding allocated to the Tay Cities Deal for digital projects as a local contribution.
