Northumberland County Council has awarded Commsworld a £22m contract to transform the county’s digital infrastructure over the next 20 years.
The deal involves replacing its ageing Wide Area Network with full-fibre infrastructure, to help provide businesses and communities across the county with access to faster, more reliable connectivity.
It will see Commsworld deliver 262km of new fibre infrastructure to nearly 150 council sites. It will also enable access to more than 120,000 residential and business properties across the county to Fibre To The Premises.
The fibre infrastructure will be linked to Commsworld’s Optical Core Network (OCN), in which it invested £10m, built specifically to boost security and resilience of digital infrastructure to organisations.
The OCN will act as the ‘spine’ from which wholesale fibre broadband providers can branch out into towns and rural areas of Northumberland at reduced rates, so communities can get significantly improved digital connectivity of up to one gigabit per second for gigabit-capable fibre broadband.
The contract will also see Commsworld work in partnership with the iNorthumberland team at the council, Community Action Northumberland and the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise, to tackle digital poverty, alongside digital skills.
Councillor Glen Sanderson, leader of Northumberland County Council, said: “This long-term approach marks a new and historic way forward for the council and its positive impact cannot be underestimated.
“We are one of the first rural counties in England to focus on changing the lives of our communities by not only providing the infrastructure to give them ground-breaking access to full-fibre broadband, but future-proofing the system so it can adapt and grow according to the needs of everyone who lives and works in Northumberland.”
Bruce Strang, chief operating officer of Commsworld, said: “This is our first major contract of this kind in England, having similarly delivered massively enhanced infrastructure to local authorities in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire and the Scottish Borders.
“Through the network, and working with our partners - including forward-thinking local fibre providers such as Alncom - we can provide a step change in connectivity and resiliency right across the county, bringing huge benefits to all those who live, learn and work there.”
Founded in 1994, Commsworld is the operator of the largest privately-owned network in the UK.
The Edinburgh-headquartered company now employs more than 140 staff operating across public and private sector contracts and supports thousands of organisations, both in public and private sectors, with their telecommunications.
It has grown rapidly in recent years, fuelled by its involvement with five of Scotland’s largest public sector ICT contracts, with local authorities in Glasgow, Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and the Scottish Borders.
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