SSE Telecoms selected by Janet

SSE Telecoms – the UK’s leading provider of network infrastructure and data centre services, and part of the SSE Group – has extended its relationship with Janet, the UK’s research and education network and part of the Jisc group. In a five year contract, with the option to extend for a further five years, Janet will broaden SSE Telecoms’ existing deal to deliver network services that replace Janet’s South regional network. This network connects universities, colleges and other education institutions in the south to Janet’s core national network.

With the demand for bandwidth in higher and further education institutions rising, Janet sought a network infrastructure upgrade that would initially provide 10Gb wavelengths based on a new fibre ring architected to the same standards as the recently launched Janet6 backbone, providing a highly scalable and flexible network service. The SSE Telecoms upgrade will provide a dark fibre core network using 280km of underground fibre routes, allowing Janet to deliver high bandwidth network services to a further 70 higher and further education institutions. Key to Janet’s decision was the fact that SSE Telecoms was able to deliver in a flexible manner. Institutions will initially enjoy a ten-fold increase in network capacity with the option to upgrade to higher bandwidth in future.

Janet’s 18 million end-users across schools, further education, higher education and research facilities already benefit from SSE Telecoms’ network services, which employ more than 6,500km of dedicated fibre, creating one of the UK’s largest private networks. This connects nearly a thousand facilities and institutions into 30 core sites, located across the UK & Ireland. This powerful network enabled by the new SSE Telecoms’ fibre network is key to enabling Janet to meet the demands of modern academic institutions, supporting academic collaboration, distance learning, remote working and the general internationalisation of education and research.

“The extension of our relationship with SSE Telecoms will enable us to deliver a world-class service for UK academic institutions,” said Jeremy Sharp, head of strategic technologies at Janet. “Flexibility was a pre-requisite to our initial deployment, as we needed to ensure that we could deliver increased capacity and speed to additional sites, in line with the growth of our regional networks. With SSE Telecoms’ impressive fibre network in place, we are confident that we can push the boundaries of education even further, by extending our geographical reach and providing unbeatable bandwidth, with virtually limitless scope for collaboration and technical innovation.”

“We are delighted to extend our work with Janet to support the UK’s research and education community with even greater connectivity throughout Southern England,” said Chris Jagusz, Managing Director of SSE Telecoms. “With our network in place, more than 18 million staff and students already benefit from greater connectivity, and our new contract will deliver a minimum ten-fold increase in capacity for those who need it most. We are very proud to be supporting innovation within multiple higher and further education institutions in this way.”