UK business connectivity provider Neos Networks has bagged another dark fiber gig with longstanding partner Jisc, a not-for-profit company that runs Janet Network. Janet is a high-speed network for the UK research and education community.

The latest deal will see Neos Networks provide fiber connectivity – offering speeds of up to 100 Gbit/s – in Northern Ireland. Jisc said that the contract awarded (it insisted) following a competitive tender, represents another phase in its ongoing efforts to "overhaul" Janet Network across 15 UK regions.

The Northern Ireland win comes quickly on the heels of Neos Networks securing a contract with Jisc to deliver dark fiber in the north-west of England. The new network will replace the existing Janet North network.

Figure 1: Aside from BT, Neos Networks leans on UK altnet CityFibre to support its "business-grade Ethernet network."
(Source: IAN GEORGESON/Alamy Stock Photo)

Neos Networks said the new dark fiber network, linking Northern Ireland to mainland UK, improves resilience. There are apparently two separate back-up routes via submarine cables to Neos Networks' unbundled exchanges in Glasgow and Southport. Deployment of the new network, said Neos Networks, is already underway as part of the initial seven-year deal.

"This latest contract win is another significant milestone," said Sarah Mills, managing director of wholesale and smart Infrastructure at Neos Networks. "The new network will deliver operational efficiencies for Jisc and enable it to continue to improve the services it offers to its members in the education and research arena."

Neil Shewry, deputy director of network delivery at Jisc, also seemed pretty pleased by the whole thing. "This network will provide future-proof connectivity to Jisc's members and help to meet increasing demand created by the ongoing shift to the hybrid learning environment," he said.

Going for an unbundle

Earlier this year, Neos Networks announced completion, slightly ahead of schedule, of a "major stage" of its Project Edge network expansion program.

As of January, the company said it had "unbundled" some 550 BT exchanges, a target it previously set for the end of 2021 in its quest to reach more business customers. Neos Networks says that it can offer 100Gbit/s and 10Gbit/s services within reach of almost 750,000 business postcodes in mainland UK.

With a full-fiber footprint of more than 34,000km, Neos Networks further claims that it supports one of the largest high-capacity business Ethernet networks in the UK.

The upshot, implies the company, is that it's very much in the UK government's gigabit good books. The network, it insisted, "helps underpin" the government's target for full-fiber gigabit connectivity to 85% of UK premises by 2025.

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Neos Networks is aiming to unbundle around 700 BT exchanges by the end of this year.

Aside from BT, Neos Networks leans on UK altnet CityFibre to support its "business-grade Ethernet network." Last August, the company agreed to add nine UK cities over the CityFibre network to its footprint, joining the 15 CityFibre regions in which Neos Networks already has a presence.

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— Ken Wieland, contributing editor, special to Light Reading