18 August 2017
Hub Network Services (HNS) has been selected as the wholesale provider of Bristol City Council’s B-Net ducting and fibre communications network.
B-Net (Bristol Network) is owned by the council and was purchased more than 15 years ago from cable TV pioneer Rediffusion. It is part of the municipal authority’s objective of leveraging its existing duct infrastructure for providing commercial services across an area that directly contributes to economic growth. As a revenue sharing initiative, a proportion of the income received by the council from businesses using the B-Net service will be used for the funding of other local services.
Stretching around 80km in length, the network already covers most of Bristol, extending from Filton in the north to Keynsham and Long Ashton in the south. With plans to expand the footprint by an additional 96km in the near future, it’s claimed businesses further afield can also expect to benefit from having low latency FTTP connections.
HNS has been appointed by the ITS Technology Group, a nationwide public sector IT services company that has agreed a 20-year concession with the council to develop B-Net. The two firms will work closely together to make affordable, secure, high-speed Gigabit internet connectivity easily accessible to local businesses.
ITS adds that the partnership with the council and local network and IT specialist HNS will support local regeneration initiatives. Mike Jones, ITS’ head of major projects, says: “This will build on the excellent work the council is doing to become a ‘smart city’ using technology to solve some of the road blocks preventing the city in achieving its full potential.”