Scottish Water and i3 Group Agreement announced
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Scottish Water and i3 Group reach agreement to use sewer system
to enable super fast fibre networks across the whole of
Scotland
Fibre optic infrastructure solutions specialist, i3 Group has
today announced the signing of a non-exclusive Framework Agreement
with Scottish Water, which sets out a process to lease a proportion
of the public sewer network across the whole of Scotland to build
super fast fibre optic infrastructure, including fibre to the home
networks.
i3 Group has been building super fast fibre optic networks using
the sewer system (its patented FS System) for more than eight years
and already has a number of customers in Scotland who are
benefiting from such reliable connectivity, including universities
and local authorities. In 2008, i3 Group announced its intention to
build a Fibrecity network in Dundee, which means connecting every
property in the city to the fibre optic network using the sewer
system to lay a proportion of the cable. Work on this 100Mbps
network started last year.
John Ewen, commercial manager of Scottish Water's commercial
subsidiary Horizons, has been working with i3 Group to allow loose
lay installation of high capacity fibre cabling within the sewer
systems. John said:
"We have long seen the benefit of making the most of our assets.
Our agreement is beneficial to Scottish Water customers and opens
up the possibility of utilising a proportion of the sewer network
to build new communications capacity at reduced cost and with lower
environmental impact during installation.
"We are not attempting to become communications experts but, for
the first time, we are playing landlord to allow our sewer network
to play host to a new communications infrastructure.
"There is also scope for Scottish Water to reduce its own
telecom costs for voice and data transfer between Scottish Water
buildings. We are also expecting, in future, to benefit from the
revenue we receive from the lease of our assets in this way to
reinvest in green technologies and other related projects."
The i3 Group's low cost methods of laying fibre optic cable are
getting international recognition as being a commercially viable
way to deploy fibre to both existing and new build homes, as there
is less disruption to the local area and no need for expensive road
digs.
Greg Mesch, president and group COO of i3 Group said: "i3 Group
has developed a low cost way to build super fast 1000Mbps fibre to
the home networks and, among other techniques, using the sewer is
an important component of this methodology. Scottish Water Horizons
has been a long standing key partner to the Group and the extension
of our agreement to cover the whole of Scotland is proof of our
concept.
"Without using the Group's methods, fibre to the home becomes
expensive and commercially unviable to build. As a result other
network operators are using alternative solutions such as fibre to
the cabinet. This is a real compromise for the end user, as
although they will benefit from uplifts in speed, it will soon be
outdated and unable to cope with demand as services evolve and
require more bandwidth. Fibre to the home is the only way to ensure
that we have a solution that meets demand for decades to come."
Fibrecity Dundee is on track for completion in early 2012 and
the i3 Group recently announced Fibrecity networks are being
considered for Aberdeen and Inverness. Elsewhere in the UK, a
Fibrecity network is being built in Bournemouth with a further
thirteen being planned or under consideration. The i3 Group is
committed to connecting at least one million homes in the UK over
the next four years.
For further information please contact:
Pippa Davies
Insight Marketing
T: +44 (0)151 244 5466
E: i3@insightmkt.com
About i3 Asia-Pacific
Together, i3 Asia-Pacific companies make building a fibre optic
infrastructure achievable and affordable: delivering unprecedented,
unlimited bandwidth to connect consumers, businesses and
governments with the next generation of Internet services.