Major plans are being developed to expand improved full fibre gigabit broadband to nearly 10,000 residential and business premises across Perth.
The latest phase is part of Perth and Kinross Council’s partnership, formed last year with Neos Networks, which connected 34 buildings in the Fair City, including three council data centres.
The UK Government Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s £2m funded Local Full Fibre Network project was also part-funded by the Tay Cities Deal.
The full fibre network, built in Perth city centre and extending out to the west of Perth, uses some of the council’s own 10km of duct laid to connect traffic lights and CCTV, together with Neos Networks’ duct.
This network of duct and fibre, extending to over 20km, gives other network operators the opportunity to gain access to connect local businesses and residential homes to gigabit-capable broadband.
The council and Neos Networks have agreements over the use of the duct and fibre for the next 20 years.
Convener of the council’s environment, infrastructure and economic development committee, Councillor Andrew Parrott, is pleased with the link-up.
He said: "We are committed to making Perth a thriving and dynamic city and having world-class digital connectivity is a key part of this.
“We are very happy to be working with Neos Networks to open up our respective duct and fibre network infrastructure to the market to enable this to happen.”
A timeline for the digital expansion and what areas will benefit specifically have not yet been disclosed by the council.
The Investment Prospectus for the network extension is available from https://neosnetworks.com/ and the Invest in Perth website www.investinperth.co.uk/category/news/news-features/
