CASE STUDY Perth and Kinross Enabling Perth and Kinross Council’s smart city ambitions neosnetworks.com Perth and Kinross Introduction Neos Networks is delivering high capacity, ultrafast broadband connectivity in Perth, Scotland, benefiting local government services, schools, businesses, leisure centres and museums. Perth and Kinross Council has a confident vision for Funding of £1m was made available via the Perth’s future: to transform it into one of “Europe’s great Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport small cities”. Its documented aspirations for smart (DCMS) as part of the Local Full Fibre Networks growth state that gaining “an international reputation Challenge Fund; and nearly £0.5m of UK for enterprise, learning, culture and an exceptional Government funding for digital connectivity from quality of life” by 2035 is a priority. the Tay Cities Deal was also allocated to support the project. Central to realising those smart city ambitions is overcoming hurdles such as digital connectivity. Perth With proven success on local government and Kinross Council identified that the key to boosting projects of similar importance and scale (such smart services and economic activity in the area was as Aberdeenshire), the Council looked to Neos to lay full fibre connections to its own buildings, as the Networks, one of the UK’s leading connectivity foundation for the modern-day connectivity demands providers, to help them on their smart city journey. of community assets. 2 neosnetworks.com Perth and Kinross The challenge Perth and Kinross Council awarded Neos including educational institutions, council Networks a major gigabit-capable connectivity buildings, leisure centres, care homes and project in November 2020, through the residential homes, as well as public buildings Government’s RM6095 Dynamic Purchasing located near the new 3,000-homes Perth West System for gigabit-capable connectivity - which housing development. aims to provide UK public sector bodies with The network is also vital to facilitate next network infrastructure services through an easy generation technologies such as 5G and Internet to procure process. of Things (IoT), crucial to futureproofing businesses in the area. Spanning 18km, the new end-to-end full fibre network will cover 33 locations across the city, The outcome Neos Networks is well on its way to delivering the new network by September 2021, by building on its established regional fibre network infrastructure. The fibre rollout includes 7.5km of Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) ducts as well as 2km of existing Perth and Kinross Council duct assets. The economical use of existing and new fibre ducts will enable Neos Networks and Perth and Kinross Council to reach more locations than would have been possible versus a traditional network build project. High speed, low latency connectivity to data centres will also help enable cloud connectivity for businesses and Fibre-To-The-Home services for residents. “Better broadband is at the heart of our mission to level up rural areas so I’m delighted Perth and Kinross is starting to feel the benefits of our investment. This funding will bring faster, future-proofed internet speeds to schools, businesses, theatres and other public buildings.” Matt Warman, UK Digital Infrastructure Minister, DCMS 3 neosnetworks.com Perth and Kinross Phase one of the project, connecting nine buildings in the city centre, was successfully completed ahead of the contracted schedule on 31st March 2021, benefiting various buildings in Perth including three Council data centres, Perth Theatre and Perth Museum and Art Gallery. With phase one now delivered, three more phases lie ahead - all of which are set to be completed by September 2021. This will include further key sites such as: Perth Fire Station, Perth City Hall, Strathmoor Family Change Project and Dewars Conference Centre. Once the network is fully operational, Neos Networks will help serve the local community for the next 20 years, futureproofing the region against the ever-growing demands of the digital economy. “The gigabit-capable connectivity provided by Neos Networks is a key part of future-proofing not only our city but also the wider Perth and Kinross rural area. Neos Networks’ technical expertise in enabling smarter cities, combined with its ability to undertake this project as economically as possible with minimal disruption, means that we’ll be getting great value for the DCMS and Tay Cities Deal investment, alongside our ongoing collaboration over the next 20 years.” David Littlejohn, Head of Planning and Development, Perth and Kinross Council 4 neosnetworks.com About Neos Networks Neos Networks provides class-leading connectivity and data centre services that deliver very high performance, cost efficiency and a competitive edge. The company operates a 24,480km private telecoms network and an estate of 90 commercial data centres that span the UK. With its extensive telecoms and data centre operational expertise it offers commercial security with unrivalled in-house engineering resource. [email protected] +44 (0)345 070 1997 neosnetworks.com.