London and Aberdeen, 23 January 2017 — Aberdeen’s schools, libraries and other public buildings are set to receive a 21st century boost after Aberdeen City Council became the latest organisation to benefit from its connection to CityFibre’s transformational Gigabit City pure fibre networks.
Delivered in partnership with Capita as part of the Scotland-wide SWAN programme, the network, which is already benefitting Aberdeen businesses, will support the Council’s growing demand for bandwidth and resilience.
Over 100 public buildings will be connected to the ultra-fast, pure fibre network, delivering cost savings and improvements to digital systems and services such as online administration, public Wi-Fi, and classroom e-learning.
This announcement marks yet another milestone in CityFibre’s deployment of pure fibre infrastructure across all of Scotland’s cities. It comes shortly after the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, where policies were announced to encourage investment into future-proof pure fibre connectivity. Aberdeen joins both Edinburgh and Stirling City Councils at the forefront of pure fibre adoption and digital transformation, strengthening CityFibre’s existing investment and commitment to the city.
James McClafferty, CityFibre’s Head of Regional Development in Aberdeen, commented: “Transforming Aberdeen into a Gigabit City has been a truly collaborative process, working with a range of strategic partners to enable access to next-generation digital connectivity for businesses, organisations, and public sites across the city.
“This next phase delivered in partnership with Capita and Aberdeen City Council will provide essential new communications infrastructure for the city’s hard working public services as well as a future-proof alternative to aging, capacity constrained copper networks. This is a long-term solution that will support the city as data usage and storage needs continue to grow.”
As well as improving digitised services and facilitating the uptake of innovative e-learning methods in schools, Councillor Willie Young, Finance, Policy and Resources Committee Convener at Aberdeen City Council, believes CityFibre’s investment will help to attract new talent and investment to the City.
He added: “Aberdeen has fast been emerging as one of the most impressive Gigabit Cities in the UK thanks to an innovative and well established partnership between the private and public sector.
“By partnering with CityFibre, we can create a leading digital infrastructure which not only makes a significant statement to the global business community but will allow our citizens to access it in public buildings.
“In particular, the network will make an incredible difference to our young people in schools. Digital learning has real benefits in that it allows our pupils to self-learn by being creative with their subject matter. It is crucial that schools are equipped with the best network to allow this learning to continue and develop.
“Further investment in this infrastructure throughout 2017 will create an extra 30km of fibre network, positioning Aberdeen among the best connected public sector facilities in the country. This is a genuine example of the achievements that can be made through local authority partnerships with innovative businesses for the betterment of an entire region.”
CityFibre is also developing Gigabit City projects in Edinburgh and Glasgow as well as throughout England, with plans to launch additional cities later in 2017.
For more information about CityFibre’s Aberdeen Gigabit City project, visit: www.cityfibre.com/aberdeen
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Notes to Editors:
CityFibre is the national builder of Gigabit Cities, as the UK’s largest alternative provider of wholesale fibre network infrastructure. It has major metro duct and fibre footprints in 41 cities across the UK and a national long distance network that connects these cities to major data-centres across the UK and to key peering points in London.
The company has an extensive customer base spanning service integrators, enterprise and consumer service providers and mobile operators. Providing a portfolio of active and dark fibre services, CityFibre’s networks address 28,000 public sites, 7,800 mobile masts, 280,000 businesses and 4 million homes.
CityFibre is based in London, United Kingdom, and its shares trade on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: CITY). Further information on the company can be found at www.cityfibre.com
The Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN) is a single public services network for the use of all public service organisations within Scotland. It is being delivered through a framework contract with Capita IT Enterprise Services.
More than 4,600 sites will be connected to the initial network including schools, hospitals, GP surgeries, pharmacies and local council offices.
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