Perth has become the first Scottish city to have a full fibre network.
The 12-mile system covers city centre locations including schools, council buildings, sheltered housing complexes and Perth Community Fire Station.
The rollout was achieved two months ahead of schedule and will mean faster internet connections benefiting businesses and Fair City residents working from home.
Neos Networks – partly owned by the SSE Group – rolled out the end-to-end full fibre network in July ahead of the September deadline despite the pandemic.
Neos had been awarded the project in November 2020, with the aim of facilitating next generation technologies such as 5G and Internet of Things (IoT).
A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council told the PA the full fibre network could provide speeds of up to one Gigabit per second meaning a five Gigabit file could take just 40 seconds to download.
Neos described the development as “future-proofing the region against the ever-growing demands of the digital economy”.
The project was funded by £1 million from the UK Government and just under £500,000 of UK Government funding from the Tay Cities Deal.
Council leader Murray Lyle told the Perthshire Advertiser: “Perth is now at the forefront of being a Smart City as far as infrastructure is concerned.”
He added: “It’s a step in the right direction.
“Hopefully we can attract some inward investment from the private sector.”
The fibre network connects three key council data centres and 31 public buildings and community establishments within the Fair City.
These include schools, council buildings, leisure centres, sheltered housing complexes, Perth Community Fire Station and the CCTV monitoring centre.
The network stretches out to the west of the Fair City close to the planned 3000-home Perth West housing development.
Now fully installed and ready for operations scheduled for the end of September, it is hoped it will help serve the Fair City for the next 20 years.
While Perth is the first Scottish city to install a full fibre network a similar scheme has been completed in Aberdeenshire.
Peter Asman, managing director for public sector and enterprise at Neos Networks, said: “Working in conjunction with Perth and 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.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Kathryn AndersonL
Quelle/Source: Daily Record, 30.08.2021
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