25.10.11
York gets dark fibre optic network
A dark fibre optic network has been installed to connect over 100 city council buildings in York. It forms part of a £13.7m, eight year project, and will provide super-fast connectivity, advanced telephony, video conferencing and a variety of urban traffic management services.
Dark fibre refers to the practice of leasing fibre optic cables from a network service provider. 100km of cable has been laid to deliver speeds of up to 10Gbps, and will support a single unified IP network which connects all 104 council websites in a cost effective way. The project was delivered by CityFibre.
Roy Grant, head of ICT at City of York Council, said that dark fibre meant that their network would be “truly future-proofed”.
He added: “This new network has the potential to help us reach our broadband coverage target set by the Government and we estimate that we will achieve 95% of this by the end of 2014/15. We believe this could provide York with real advantages over the rest of the UK.
“The outcomes far exceeded the council’s initial expectations. This is an extremely good project for the whole of York and one that we believe puts us in the top five UK councils in terms of footprint. It gives us unprecedented future proof investment and is an excellent platform to build upon.”
The City of York Council is now looking at possible revenue opportunities to capitalise on its new network, attracting business and commerce into the area by sharing it with third parties so that they can deliver their services back to the council at a reduced rate.
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