Dark fibre: spend to save initiatives

It was great to announce earlier this week, the completion of an important project for Dundee City Council. As part of a transformational £270m regeneration scheme in Dundee, we’ve built a diverse dark fibre optic link connecting the Council’s brand new headquarters to a second data centre, supporting more than 200 council premises across the city including schools and social housing. Whilst this may sound simple, Dundee City Council has been very forward thinking. Not only has it now established and taken control of its own communications infrastructure and in doing so managing these costs, but it has also been able to make significant estate management cost savings as it has moved into smaller premises. It now no longer needs a dedicated workstation for every member of staff as it has been able to introduce hot-desking and flexible working. Why? Well, because it now has a network that has unlimited bandwidth capabilities without the exorbitant voice and data costs associated with this level of service, and it can support unified communications. Once again this shows our solutions align perfectly with many local authorities' spend to save initiatives. Customers are not forced to endlessly ‘rent’ more and more costly bandwidth; instead a dedicated point to point fibre network demonstrates real value and significant cost savings over a flexible term contract. Our networks can easily handle even the most extreme bandwidth requirements and if additional fibre pairs are required, these can be purchased at a vastly reduced cost. Let's hope more local authorities follow in their footsteps. Mark Collins Chief Commercial Officer