HNS is now recruiting a number of locally-based IT support and telecom reseller firms to accelerate the roll out of the new BNET service. These, and business end users, will be supported by HNS’ 24/7/365 in-house network monitoring and support team.
BNET is set to deliver low cost, secure, high speed Gigabit Internet connectivity to thousands of businesses in the Bristol area, and follows HNS’ appointment by ITS Technology Group, a nationwide public sector IT services company, which has agreed a 20-year concession with Bristol City Council to develop the network.
This is in line with the Council’s objective of leveraging its existing duct infrastructure for providing commercial services across the area that directly contribute to economic growth. As a revenue sharing initiative, a proportion of the income received by the Council from businesses using the BNET service will be used for the funding of other important local services.
Approximately 80 Km’s in length, the BNET duct network carrying the high-speed fibre optic cabling already covers most of Bristol, extending from Filton in the North to Keynsham and Long Ashton in the South. With plans to expand the fibre footprint by an additional 96 Km’s in the near future, businesses further afield can also expect to benefit from having low latency fibre optic connections directly to their premises.
John Volanthen, CEO of HNS, said, “As a local network and IT solutions specialist, HNS are delighted to be supporting Bristol City Council on this exciting local business community initiative. With its already extensive footprint BNET is ideally suited for quickly connecting businesses of all sizes to the Internet including the many media, marketing and software firms in the area with particularly large bandwidth requirements, as well as large multi-tenant office buildings and corporate premises. Apart from sheer speed, low latency and low cost, BNET also offers a reliable, fully supported and very secure Internet connectivity solution.”
Mike Jones, Head of Major Projects, ITS, said, “It’s a real pleasure to be working with a local network and IT specialist of such quality in Bristol. The partnership between the Council, HNS and ITS will enable the delivery of large bandwidth to local business throughout the City and support the regeneration initiatives of the Council and its partners. 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.”
Gavin Beckett, Head of Digital Transformation, Bristol City Council said, “As a leading digital city, The Bristol Network and the collaboration with Bristol City Council is imperative to drive forward a programme of change throughout the city.”