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Supporting Instant On IT to deliver connectivity that holds up in court

Meeting the growing bandwidth demands of legal chambers and solicitors’ firms with Dedicated Internet Access services up to 10Gbps.

Digital transformation has fundamentally changed the day-to-day work of legal professionals. In the years since the pandemic, the sector’s connectivity requirements have increased exponentially as video conferencing, collaborative working, and online legal proceedings become commonplace. With so much of this activity happening simultaneously, particularly at larger firms or chambers, high bandwidth connectivity that provides quality of service, security and uptime is a necessity.

Instant On IT is an IT support, security, cloud and digital solutions provider dedicated to the legal sector. Its services connect solicitors’ firms and legal chambers across the UK. To do this while meeting the growing bandwidth and latency requirements of its end customers, Instant On IT needed a connectivity partner that could deliver.

The challenge

Instant On IT and Neos teamed up to provide Managed Dedicated Internet Access (MDIA) services for over 10 customers. Ideal for Instant On IT’s legal sector customers, Dedicated Internet Access provides a private connection to the internet with both the router and circuit monitored and maintained, perfect for organisations seeking reliable and dedicated internet connectivity, backed by business-grade Service Level Agreements (SLAs). These services can be managed or wires-only, depending on the needs of the customer. The former means businesses can offload much of the complexity that comes with establishing and maintaining internet connectivity, while the latter gives in-house teams more control to configure connections as they see fit.

Neos provides expert support in establishing, monitoring, and maintaining connectivity so Instant On IT can focus on providing more specialised IT services and support across various technologies including cloud, security, collaboration tools and more.

The outcome

By joining forces, Instant On IT and Neos Networks are delivering reliable connectivity solutions tailored to the needs of the legal sector. With Neos’ support, Instant On IT can quickly procure or scale up services for its customers through a combination of easy-to-use automated systems and a dedicated Account Director. Neos’s online quoting and ordering portal, LIVEQUOTE, is a huge part of this, making the process from order to installation as seamless as possible – meaning orders can be installed in as little as a week after purchase.

A major joint project between Neos and Instant On IT was overhauling the digital infrastructure of the No5 Barristers’ Chambers Birmingham office, a large site serving over 300 barristers and clerks. With a huge quantity of video conferencing and online court hearings taking place across the Chambers every day, Instant On IT was tasked with improving the service and reliability of the site’s connectivity. If court hearings are being done online, downtime or poor connection quality is simply not an option. Neos provides this reliable service across multiple locations with bandwidths of up to 10Gbps, consistently hitting quality audits and meeting ISO9001 standards for No5’s team of barristers and clerks.

“Neos Networks offers a modern approach to connectivity, dealing with their friendly team and straightforward connectivity portal which is much less clunky than other services out there. When placing orders with some vendors you still need to wait for quotes from account managers which can bottleneck projects. With Neos’ consistent approach it’s easy to plug connectivity in and with MDIA it means lower management is required on our end, so we can focus on delivering the best service to our customers.” – Paul Coote, CEO, Instant On IT.

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Bridging connectivity and security with Securus Communications

Successful projects include delivering a bespoke SD-WAN and NAC solution to McArthurGlen across nine sites, underpinned by dual gigabit RO2 circuits.

The long-term relationship between Securus Communications and Neos Networks has developed into a strategic partnership over the last nine years, delivering reliable and cost-effective connectivity solutions to a range of customers across the UK.

Securus Communications is a leading managed network provider, with a strong emphasis on network security and infrastructure solutions. Over the years it has gradually evolved into a managed service organisation, specialising in network access control (NAC), managed hosting, and IT security. Known for its technical expertise and commitment to quality, Securus offers flexible, bespoke network services to businesses across all sectors.

With a shared dedication to innovation and customer service, Neos Networks and Securus Communications are natural partners. The long-standing relationship has matured and developed over the years. A recent example of a successful collaboration between Neos and Securus was for McArthurGlen, one of Europe’s premier developers of designer fashion outlets.

The challenge

The project involved implementing SD-WAN and NAC solutions across McArthurGlen’s nine sites throughout the UK. The solution aimed to enhance the visibility, performance and security for its London-based IT team.

With dispersed locations across England, SD-WAN would allow the IT team to more easily deploy services across these locations to ensure consistent performance and security across the sites. Similarly, the granular network management provided by NAC would also give the team new levels of control over the network to identify and solve issues or security threats across all nine sites. Combined, this would grant McArthurGlen visibility of their network down to the individual port. Implementing such a solution required deep expertise and a secure high-capacity network to underpin it – the perfect blend for Neos and Securus.

To help deliver the solution for McArthurGlen, Neos equipped Securus with a gigabit RO2 (Resilience Option 2) circuit for each of the nine sites (eighteen in total). Having these circuits at each site gives each location gigabit bandwidth and provides even more resiliency against downtime or service issues.

The outcome

Thanks to the partnership, McArthurGlen has a robust and flexible connectivity solution in place which promotes greater visibility and security across the nine sites, backed up by dual gigabit circuits and state-of-the-art dual firewalls, delivering advanced yet cost-effective connectivity.

The customer support from Neos was a significant factor in the project’s – and the wider partnership’s – success. Brett Rowe, the founder of Securus Communications, praised the support from Neos’ dedicated order manager, emphasising their proactive approach and problem-solving skills. This project is one of many success stories coming from the relationship between the two companies, built on effective communication and a deep understanding of each other’s needs.

The partnership’s success has seen Securus significantly streamline its network service providers over the years, choosing Neos Networks as its primary partner due to its focus on collaboration, competitive pricing, and customer experience. Currently a silver partner, Securus is actively working towards gold status. This is not only due to their faith in the relationship, but a reflection of the increasing demand of Securus’ customers for more advanced connectivity and bandwidths including 10Gbps – 100Gbps services. Neos’ continuously expanding network comprising over 600 Points of Presence, 90 on-net data centres, and 4 metro access networks, is ideally positioned to support Securus and its customers with reliable, high-capacity connectivity across the UK.

“In Neos, we’ve found a trusted partner who understands our needs, as well as the needs of our customers, and can translate these into solutions that deliver. While its offering is very competitive, it’s the collaborative approach to problem-solving that makes Neos such a natural choice for our projects. It’s the relationship that works, our dedicated order manager makes the journey easy – they come to us with solutions, not problems” – Brett Rowe, Founder, Securus Communications.

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Working together to deliver reliable connectivity across the country

When Internet Central were looking to migrate 17 1Gbps circuits, they had confidence in choosing Neos Networks to deliver this multi-site project.

Established in 1995, Internet Central is one of the UK’s very first Internet Service Providers (ISP). With a team of technical experts and a long and trusted history in the market, IC is committed to providing internet solutions to business customers across all industry sectors.

Internet Central delivers both leased line and private networks to its diverse customer base of SMEs and large national organisations. IC needed access to a UK-wide network in order to meet these differing connectivity needs and reach its customer base, which is primarily dispersed throughout the Midlands and Northwest of England. Although their customers are located throughout the UK, IC on-net Points of Presence are located in these regions, making it even more crucial for them to have a strong presence via another carrier.

The challenge

Delivering high quality services is core to Internet Central’s business, and to do so, efficiency is critical. Internet Central required a connectivity partner that could support the business in its migration of 17 1Gbps circuits. The process would allow the ISP to stay agile and better adapt to an ever-changing market, but risked disrupting live services and increasing costs for its customers if not effectively managed. Any significant disruption would have prompted customers to move to a different provider – a substantial risk in a highly competitive market.

To avoid disrupting customers’ services, the ISP required a partner with an extensive network reach that could support the circuit migration, while seamlessly upgrading services across several of their customers’ sites. Having worked with Neos Networks for five years, Internet Central was confident that the two companies could work together to deliver this multi-site project.

The outcome

Neos Networks’ UK-wide presence ensured that the multi-site migration was completed with minimal disruption. Internet Central’s customers were upgraded to 1Gbps services, enabling them to benefit from enhanced connectivity. In addition to enabling a seamless transition to the new service, the upgrade to Internet Central’s network provides its customers with the ability to scale bandwidth more flexibly and cost effectively.

While Neos Networks’ reach and presence was a key factor in this project, the crucial driving force behind success in the partnership was the seamless working relationship between the two companies. To ensure a smooth delivery, an Order Manager from Neos Networks’ provisioning team was dedicated to the Internet Central account. This meant that any orders being made or changed would run through one dedicated team-member, ensuring that they could focus solely on Internet Central’s needs.

Similarly, by holding regular weekly meetings, important updates could be efficiently shared and managed. Staying in regular contact has been critical to the delivery of Internet Central’s services. This streamlined approach, flowing through from planning to service delivery, enabled days to be shaved off installation times.

In an industry where speed of delivery is a crucial differentiator, this has been tantamount to the continued satisfaction of Internet Central’s customers. Looking ahead, as Internet Central continues to grow its connectivity side of the business and serve its diverse customer base, the partnership with Neos Networks is well poised to grow.

“At Internet Central, we pride ourselves on delivering a personalised customer service and it’s clear that Neos Networks shares the same mission. Our account team at Neos Networks knows our business and anticipates our needs. As a result, we’re able to focus more time and expertise on delivering great services for our customers. It’s been fantastic to see the partnership grow over the last few years and we can’t wait to see what’s next”
– Marie Wheeler, Commercial Director at Internet Central

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Laying the foundations for Oxfordshire’s smart county

Introduction

For over a decade, Oxfordshire County Council has been hard at work upgrading broadband connectivity across the county through its Digital Infrastructure Programme. The council produced a vision for a ‘Smart County,’ and through a series of projects including Better Broadband for Oxfordshire and Businesses in Rural Oxfordshire.  Since then it has connected more than 100,000 premises to gigabit capable connectivity and is now one of the most connected counties in the UK, Oxfordshire continues to deliver on its commitment to improving digital and social inclusion for the communities it serves.

The challenge

In 2021, Oxfordshire County Council secured funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), as part of the GigaHubs project. Oxfordshire’s project would mark the first of its type under Project Gigabit, with £5m investment from Oxfordshire County Council and circa £2m investment from the DCMS.

While 98.4% of Oxfordshire had access to superfast broadband at the time, this initiative aimed to significantly improve connectivity for 175 public services sites, many of which are located in rural locations where fibre connectivity is both difficult to facilitate and expensive to provision. The majority council-funded project would see new full fibre broadband infrastructure built to help lay further foundations for a ‘Smart County.’

Oxfordshire County Council engaged in a procurement process and Neos Networks was selected to facilitate the build of new network into a range of sites including schools, GP practices, fire stations, libraries, leisure centres, community centres and museums. Critically, Neos was awarded the contract for its ability to aggregate and manage multiple broadband suppliers to deliver the best and most cost-effective solution for the council.

Over 20 years, Neos will act as an aggregator bringing together several connectivity suppliers including Openreach, Virgin Media Business and regional AltNet Gigaclear. In doing so, Neos is leveraging existing and newly built infrastructure as well as its own dark fibre estate to connect the sites in scope. The new infrastructure will also encourage the build of Fibre-to-the-Premise services by AltNets in the region.

The outcome

By the end of 2023, the project will be complete, with Neos having significantly improved connectivity for buildings providing public services across the region. The project has enabled the council to migrate to lower cost, faster broadband connections for its office buildings. It is also realising its ambitions for equipping community centres to become ‘community working hubs’ offering enhanced community services, health and social care support and reducing the need for people to travel further afield to access these services. Additionally, Oxfordshire says the project will assist it in meeting its objective for net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.

The completion of the GigaHubs project will mean that over 1,500 km of fibre has been provisioned, establishing strong foundations for Oxfordshire’s ‘Smart County’ goals. This new digital infrastructure will also enable future innovation such as drone corridors, connected vehicles, and other ‘Internet of Things’ services.

A wide range of public services sites across the region are already benefiting in a variety of ways, for example Faringdon Library has noticed a positive benefit on its service delivery. The library is experiencing faster speeds on public computers and staff PCs. The improved Wi-Fi connection is also supporting flexible working, meetings and hot desking for visiting staff. Mollington Village Hall was able to install a smart thermostat to control its heating remotely. And they say they now have plans to create a hub for people that regularly work from home, so they don’t feel so isolated.

For Oxfordshire, the outcomes of this project have focused on inclusivity, creating opportunity, and bringing communities together.

“We see Neos as a key strategic partner who can help our remit around enhancing Oxfordshire’s digital infrastructure foundations now, and well into the future. With Neos’ help we have strengthened Oxfordshire’s credentials as one of the UK’s most connected counties. Neos has been the ideal partner in sharing in our vision for a smart county, and for leveraging connectivity to bring new opportunities to businesses and residents within our communities.”

Craig Bower, Oxfordshire County Council’s Digital Infrastructure Team Programme Director

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Supporting Optinet in delivering innovative connectivity solutions at lightning speeds for UK businesses

Delivering services within 48 hours allowing tenants to access high bandwidth connectivity through Neos Networks backhaul.

Established in 2016, Optinet was founded by a group of telecoms industry experts who aimed to disrupt the market by improving upon the low value, low quality connectivity services offered by incumbents. With Optinet’s customer base spanning several data intensive sectors including major retailers and multi-tenanted buildings, the company faces the challenge of providing reliable connectivity services that can support the high capacities necessary. To ensure this seamless experience for its customers, Optinet prides itself on its customer-centric approach and unique product set that offers a zero-loss service enabled by diverse fibre routes into a customers’ building or site.

Optinet operates by pre-cabling multi-tenanted buildings to enable its full fibre deployment. This involves upfront investment from the business to build fibre directly into the customer premises. To date, it has pre-cabled over 200 buildings, providing 2,750 offices with physical fibre that can enable services within 48 hours from 100Mbps to 100Gbps.

The challenge

The Optinet approach focuses on removing the challenges of rolling out Ethernet services. The process is often long and multifaceted, from order validation, to testing, all the way to configuration and deployment, with an industry average deployment of 90 working days. Optinet’s pre-cabling approach focuses on providing multi-tenanted buildings with the necessary infrastructure for landlords and tenants to access high bandwidth connectivity, installing the network infrastructure in advance and then allowing tenants to provision those services in future and within just 48 hours.

As customer demand grows for flexible, high bandwidth, high capacity connectivity services, Optinet needed to partner with a backhaul network provider that could meet its requirements for network reach, capacity and reliability. Critically, that connectivity partner needed to align with Optinet’s existing model and proposition of delivering connectivity to pre-cabled premises. Due to its expansive UK-wide network and shared mission to provide best-in-class services, Neos Networks was selected to be the backhaul provider for Optinet’s large Ethernet project across the UK.

The outcome

Neos Networks provides Optinet with 10Gbps to 100Gbps services through its backhaul infrastructure. Neos’s high capacity core network enables Optinet to provide its customers with Fibre-to-the-Premise connectivity in just 48 hours. By establishing a relationship with the landlord, Optinet is in a unique position to pre-cable the building, deliver the fibre and complete all necessary health-and-safety checks with no disruption to the tenant.

Through this approach, Optinet has enabled high speed, reliable, resilient connectivity services to many UK businesses. By adopting a pre-cabling strategy and investing up-front, Optinet is able to offer a seamless experience to end-customers, enabling faster access to high speed connectivity.

Following the initial large scale Ethernet project, Optinet and Neos continue to work closely together. Optinet benefits from Neos’s service and access to the expertise of its talented team. By maintaining consistent communication with Neos’s pre-sales team and Account Director, Optinet can acquire solutions that fit the company’s needs and meets its changing customer demands. If there is a challenge or change in plans, the two teams quickly communicate and resolve any issues before they arise. As the relationship continues to grow, there are ambitions to explore new services and ways of working together to continue supporting Optinet’s early adopter customer base with higher capacities.

“Working with the team at Neos has been a fantastic experience. Their expertise is second to none, and they always go above and beyond to deliver projects to an incredibly high standard. It’s a true, collaborative partnership, and working with the team is always so easy and enjoyable. Working with a business whose values align so closely with our own is a pleasure, and we look forward to seeing where else the partnership can take us as we continue to work closely together.”

Sean Pearman, Director at Optinet. 

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Neos Networks delivers Dark Fibre network for CityFibre

New network allows CityFibre to deploy full fibre FTTP services to the south coast

CityFibre is the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform. Founded in 2011, the company established a vision to bring more choice to the market by unlocking the digital potential of communities across the UK. It saw an opportunity to roll out full fibre infrastructure in areas of the UK where it was needed most, catapulting the UK onto an equal footing with the rest of Europe.

The availability of high capacity infrastructure has become critical in unlocking the value of digital services for residential, business, mobile and public sector customers. But rolling out that infrastructure is no small feat. CityFibre needed partners that aligned with its vision for a better-connected nation.

Neos Networks shares this vision, with both companies having expressed similar expansion plans for delivering enhanced, high capacity, high speed fibre connectivity across the UK. Over several years, Neos Networks and CityFibre have developed a strategic relationship that ensures the country has access to high-availability, resilient and secure connectivity services.

The challenge

As part of its ongoing national network expansion plans and its investment in connecting the UK to Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) services, CityFibre set out to deploy a new full fibre network along the south coast. The new high-speed full fibre network will link Brighton, Portsmouth, Worthing, Bognor Regis, Chichester, Horsham, Bracknell and Bournemouth with Reading.

CityFibre identified the south coast corridor as an important target area to improve its reach and service capabilities. The network would also allow the company’s service provider partners to offer gigabit-level speeds to business and consumer customers locally. The challenge, however, was that the roll out of the network was to take place during a period of global supply chain issues and chip shortages. CityFibre needed a partner who could provide additional infrastructure to enable it to offer reliable, high capacity, high bandwidth services across the region in spite of these challenges.

They recognised that achieving their goal would require a Dark Fibre network that could deliver reliability, integrity and complete control. In doing so, CityFibre would be able to drive out as much capacity as required, while also benefitting from the value economics that a Dark Fibre network offers.

The outcome

CityFibre selected Neos Networks to provide the Dark Fibre connectivity necessary for them to deliver their gigabit service. By choosing Neos Networks for the Dark Fibre infrastructure, CityFibre   connects into the company’s nationwide backbone fibre network, which spans 676 points of presence (PoPs), 90 data centres, and 550 exchanges. Neos Networks’ vast fibre footprint made it an obvious and compelling choice for CityFibre, which plans to bring full fibre connectivity within reach of up to eight million homes in towns and cities across the UK as part of its up to £4billion Gigabit City Investment Programme.

Connecting CityFibre into Neos Networks’ Dark Fibre infrastructure has been a success, with the links to Reading delivered in less than 12 months. This has allowed CityFibre to begin lighting up its high-speed full fibre network linking major towns and cities in the South East of England and across the south coast corridor.

CityFibre can now bring all the towns and cities across the full link on stream. CityFibre’s service providers can then begin to actively sell local access to the full fibre network. Thanks to CityFibre and Neos Networks’ collaboration, partners will be able to offer connectivity speeds of up to 1Gbps for upload and download.

“It is very important for us to be able to offer to our partners high-speed, full fibre with both local access and nationwide fibre coverage. Working with Neos Networks across the UK helps us to deliver on this connectivity ambition.” 

David Tomalin, Group Chief Technology Officer, CityFibre

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Neos Networks support brsk in delivering fibre broadband to underserved regions

Neos Networks support brsk in delivering fibre broadband to underserved regions

Brsk is a full fibre broadband provider focused on connecting under-served towns and cities, particularly those located in dense suburban areas more likely to suffer from poor internet connectivity speeds or who have only experienced an inferior broadband technology service to date.

Brsk has rolled out fibre connectivity to over 266,000 homes across Manchester, South Birmingham/West Midlands, Bradford and Lancashire, with its sights set on covering one million homes across the UK by 2026.

In the UK, brsk has established itself as having one of the fastest growing full fibre broadband networks in the country, drawing on the heritage of its founders of large-scale Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) deployments in South Africa. The success of brsk wouldn’t be possible without key strategic partnerships, including its engagement with Neos Networks.

The challenge

Brsk decided to take a unique approach in the market by focusing on delivering strong community engagement and awareness before building out their network, thus ensuring that the client-base was already in place once the network was made available.

Brsk also took measures to ensure it didn’t overbuild, focusing on areas that needed connectivity the most, namely densely populated suburban areas.

To deliver this connectivity, brsk needed to work with a backhaul provider who could connect the identified regions back to its core network, while also providing high capacity connectivity that allowed for scalability.

The project came with tight time frames, due to brsk committing to firm connectivity deadlines in order to meet customer demand. It was therefore imperative the company found a partner who could deliver to these timings, while delivering efficiencies and enabling faster connectivity speeds to brsk’s customers.

The outcome

Neos Networks’ high capacity network spans the length of the UK making it an ideal partner to support brsk with diverse national backhaul services. Neos Networks has invested heavily in the growth of its own network, more than doubling its reach over the past few years, with 550 BT exchanges now on-net. The efforts to widen this footprint has meant that its fibre network is available across the country, which has allowed brsk to bring broadband to previously overlooked areas.

Work began in March 2021, with 10Gbps backhaul being rolled out by Neos Networks initially. The first delivery was completed in June 2021. As customer numbers have grown, Neos and brsk have worked hand-in-hand to migrate these networks to 100Gbps Optical services, quickly scaling to meet new and dynamic requirements.

Brsk and Neos Networks have continued to work collaboratively to ensure each network has redundant connectivity in place in order to maintain a high level of service reliability for its customers. To identify the right connectivity provisions for 10Gbps services, the brsk team frequently used Neos Networks’ online pricing portal, LIVEQUOTE. The automated self-service tool has been instrumental for brsk in providing access to real-time pricing, quote comparisons and instant orders.

By the end of June 2023, brsk had provided 100Gbps to key regions across the North of England and the Midlands, helping to meet growing customer demand for reliable, high-speed connectivity.

“Neos Networks have been supportive of our growth plans from the get-go. They’ve worked closely with us to ensure that our customers are delivered a network that is both high capacity and highly resilient. Their UK-wide national exchange footprint has allowed us to quickly scale backhaul services. This has been instrumental to our business, enabling the fast and efficient rollout of FTTP networks to our customers.”

Head of Networks, Jody Botham, brsk

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How Wifirst and Neos Networks helped better connect a key player in the hospitality space

When Wifirst were looking to extend their presence overseas, they looked to Neos Networks to help broaden their reach

Founded in 2002, Wifirst has established itself as the European leader in managed WiFi services. Originally incorporated in France, it expanded internationally in 2016 and now covers 26 countries across EMEA, serving the hospitality, housing, healthcare, retail and B2B sectors.

Wifirst first partnered with Neos Networks in April 2017 with the aim of developing its presence across the UK. Tapping into Neos Networks’ extensive national reach and high capacity backhaul services, Wifirst has been able to bring business-grade WiFi networks to its UK customers. This, alongside Neos Networks recent investment in the development and expansion of its own network, made it ideally placed to support Wifirst’s connectivity ambitions, enabling the service provider to better serve their clients in the hospitality industry.

The challenge

One of Wifirst’s hospitality clients is a multinational player with whom Wifirst has provided internet services for several years.

When Wifirst looked to move into the UK market, they were keen to continue serving the hospitality provider, targeting its multiple sites across the country. The customer was looking to replace their existing legacy solutions while upgrading their connections within a swift delivery timescale. In order to meet these criteria, Wifirst needed a partner with its own UK fibre network, who could offer seamless 1Gbps connectivity to end-customer across multiple sites.

The outcome

Neos Networks had a pre-existing relationship as a provider of layer 2 connectivity to the parent company of Wifirst UK. Therefore, when it came to sourcing a backhaul provider, they were top of mind, in part thanks to Neos Networks’ extensive network reach, experience in supporting delivery of connectivity to customer sites within short timeframes, and ability to offer highly robust services at a competitive price point.

This collaboration allowed Wifirst, with the support of Neos Networks fibre infrastructure, to roll-out WiFi services into the UK properties of the client. The project is now nearing completion with circa 80% of sites already delivered, with the remaining 20% due to be handed over in the coming months.

Of course, the project was not without its challenges. The delivery of net-new circuits while implementing a new firewall and deploying and testing the back-up Digital Subscriber Line created complexity at times, but Neos Networks and Wifirst’s close collaboration resulted in the seamless transition to the new services. This has meant minimal disruption to the end-customers day-to-day operations with no downtime to their connectivity service.

Today, the client benefits from simplified supply and support as it collaborates with a single provider, Wifirst, who deliver combined services covering all sites. This puts them in a stronger position to offer improved quality of service to their end-customers.

For Wifirst, this successful deployment of services is indicative of its ability to serve the UK market through its successful partnership with Neos Networks, enabling the provider to take on more opportunities throughout the UK.

“Neos Networks was perfectly placed to help us deliver exceptional WiFi managed services to our UK hospitality customers in a way that supports their long-term growth. As the success of the highlighted project has shown, we have established an important synergy with Neos Networks which has resulted in an improved end experience and service availability for our customer. Without its skills and expertise, as well as its infrastructure and reach, we wouldn’t have been able to act tactically to pursue this specific business opportunity outside of our home country.”

Theo Dimishky, Business Development Director at Wifirst

“We’re really pleased to have been given the opportunity to support Wifirst establish its presence in the UK and deliver outstanding quality of service. For us, providing the best customer experience is essential, so it’s been fantastic to work with a company that shares our values. We were able to demonstrate the strength of this synergy through our joint delivery. Our speed of execution and seamless service transition were key in providing the reliable connectivity that the customer required while maintaining business continuity.”

Mike Mitchell, Sales Director for Wholesale Partners at Neos Networks

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Supporting Giacom in accessing higher bandwidth options at more competitive rates

Taking partnership to the next level with Giacom, marking a key milestone in our relationship.

Company Details
Giacom

Giacom has grown exponentially since its founding, now serving over 5,000 partners in the UK Channel. A 100% partner-focused business, they support partners to sell into the SME market by delivering a comprehensive portfolio of services, including connectivity, IP voice, mobile and hardware.

Giacom works with the best suppliers in the industry, giving their partners a wide range of products and solutions to choose from. They began working with Neos Networks in 2016, combining their industry knowledge and expertise to deliver high capacity connectivity services to the UK ICT Market.

The challenge

There has been a sizeable shift in demand for higher capacity connectivity over the past few years, with the pandemic seeing this hit an all-time high. Businesses are finding that 100Mbps connectivity services are no longer enough to support the high levels of digital output required.

This market shift led Giacom to the realisation that, in order to effectively support partners and their customers, they needed to offer higher bandwidth options at competitive prices. Having worked with Neos Networks for a number of years and being aware of their recent network and high capacity investment, Giacom knew that the UK network provider were ideally placed to support this transition, enabling Giacom to broaden their offering to include Ethernet services with bandwidths up to 10Gbps.

The outcome

Giacom worked closely with Neos Networks to not only expand their portfolio, but also to incentivise their customers through a commercial arrangement that achieves volume economics. This model allowed Giacom partners to upgrade their customers’ low bandwidth services to a higher capacity alternative. It also enables them to reach a new customer base of larger enterprises, helping to aid business growth.

The partnership promotes the expansion of Neos Networks reach, while simultaneously providing Giacom with a loyalty programme and dedicated service. This includes dedicated account teams, sales support, delivery and provisioning teams and an enhanced post-sales experience. Neos Networks and Giacom were then able to offer 500Mbps and 1Gbps services at a more competitive rate, all without impacting the customer experience or compromising on service quality.

To date, it has yielded significant results in terms of a 150 percent increase in sales, including many cases of capacity upgrades.

The roll-out of this new commercial arrangement has taken the Giacom and Neos Networks partnership to the next level, with the project recently extended to include Neos Networks’ 10Gbps connection services.

“Neos Networks demonstrate an ability to listen to our needs and provides us with a favourable solution. Through this partnership, we’re able to offer high capacity business connectivity to our customers at price points that are achievable to them. And all this is backed by Neos Networks’ ongoing, outstanding support services. Our collaboration goes back several years, and we’re excited to further strengthen this relationship to bring the benefits of fibre connectivity to more customers in the future.” James Baker, Chief Product Officer at Giacom.

“This latest partnership approach with Giacom marks a key milestone in our relationship. By pooling our extensive knowledge and expertise, together we can continue to serve the needs of the market while meeting the Governments objective of better connecting the UK, all at the same time as continuing to deliver the very best customer experience.” Sarah Mills, Chief Revenue Officer at Neos Networks.

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How Giganet relied on Neos Networks expansive reach to develop their Southern fibre network

When Giganet wanted to develop their network across the South of England, they looked to Neos Networks to help build out their reach.

Southern Fibre Network

Introduction

Giganet is a highly experienced Internet Service Provider (ISP) with a strong track record of delivering superlative internet services to business and home users across the UK. Giganet has been providing business connectivity and telecommunications for over eight years. From 2020, Giganet also focused their efforts on connecting residential customers to full fibre broadband through its collegial partnerships with CityFibre and Openreach. Since launching its fibre broadband service to households over 12 months ago, Giganet has seen its reach extend to over nine million homes across the UK. Today its flagship project sees the company build out its own fibre networks in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, and West Sussex.

The challenge

In early 2021, Giganet took on the task of driving the UK’s network expansion in the Southern counties in order to deliver essential backhaul and data centre connectivity. The project formed part of a wider initiative to offer regional and national high-speed fibre connectivity to areas which, until today, have been digitally underserved, unable to take advantage of the benefits of high capacity, fibre broadband.

Due to its existing strategic network partnerships, Giganet was already able to offer robust connectivity to homes and businesses across the nation, but they were keen to expand this offering further. With this in mind, the ISP were looking to undertake a significant expansion of its infrastructure, in order to reach and support more homes and businesses still, focusing its efforts initially on the South of England.

Giganet selected Neos Networks to help them with its ambitious roll-out plans as they felt the renowned fibre connectivity supplier was best placed to deliver the connectivity required to carry traffic from its unbundled exchanges and data centres across into its national network. This backhaul offering enabled Giganet to connect their fibre offering into Neos Networks’ expansive 34,000km, high capacity fibre infrastructure.

The outcome

Not only did the collaboration boost Giganet’s plans for its own national network service, the network expansion project also saw Neos Networks support the ISP in increasing their capacity offering tenfold. This increase is foundational to both Giganet’s and Neos Networks’ commitment to supporting the UK government’s ambition to help satisfy the increased demand for high-speed fibre connectivity by 2025. With Neos Networks having invested heavily in the expansion of their own network in 2021, more than doubling their network reach with 550 BT exchanges now on-net, the national network provider has greatly contributed to the Giganet’s mission of minimising the UK’s digital divide.

Giganet’s plans for its own national network includes a commitment to providing only full fibre connectivity to its consumers. With this in mind, the company aims to have a core network and its first four exchange rings live by the end of 2022. Over the next four years, it then plans to deliver fibre broadband services to some 300,000 homes across Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, and West Sussex, via its own fibre network roll-out.

“Neos Networks rose to the challenge of providing us with resilient and high capacity backhaul circuits across a wide range of exchanges, as well as our core data centres. This partnership has enabled us to secure connectivity to our points of presence faster than expected, initially enabling each of our first four regional rings with resilient 100Gbps backhaul. We are now witnessing a significant acceleration of our South coast roll-out.”

Matthew Skipsey, Chief Technology Officer at Giganet

“Both Neos Networks and Giganet have adopted a collaborative and constructive approach to this project. Not only has this resulted in solutions being delivered faster than ever, but as the Giganet network grows, it also gives us the ability to transition connectivity between points of presence without any disruption. There is no doubt that by working in partnership with alternative network providers, like Giganet, the end result will be a better, faster, and more resilient connectivity for UK residents.”

Sarah Mills, Chief Revenue Officer at Neos Networks

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Delivering a mission critical communications network for The Maritime and Coastguard Agency

How Neos Networks are working with Telent to build a next generation network for The Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Company Details
Telent

Introduction

Telent is a trusted supplier of critical national infrastructure. It designs, delivers and supports solutions and services across a wide range of industries and sectors. For the emergency services sector its solutions include managed service offerings, control room systems, private radio, vehicle communications and core network provision.

The challenge

In the summer of 2020, Telent secured a ten-year agreement with The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to design, build and operate a next generation mission critical communications network. The new network was to replace legacy BT infrastructure and connect some 165 remote radio sites around 11,000 miles of UK coastline with a combination of full fibre or microwave technology connectivity.

When complete, the new network will allow HM Coastguard to receive distress calls more efficiently from all maritime users, more easily co-ordinate rescue operations and bring improvements such as increased security and bandwidth, as well as allow the Coastguard team to invest in advanced search and rescue technology dependent on digital connectivity.

Telent appointed Neos Networks as its trusted partner to deploy a resilient Ethernet network to the MCA’s coastline radio stations, situated in remote, rural and often difficult to reach locations with very little supporting infrastructure. Given the nature of the services provided from these locations – The MCA responds to more than 3,000 distress or 999 calls every year – guaranteed digital connectivity 24/7, 365 days a year, was an essential element of the project.

The outcome

Neos Networks is successfully delivering full fibre connectivity to the MCA’s remote radio stations. Overcoming the challenges of often difficult local terrain, each site is now served by fully diverse, separate fibre routes, providing 24/7 resilience, and ensuring that if one fibre link is disrupted, the other can maintain connectivity and protect the vital service being provided.

Replacing legacy copper infrastructure, the new high-capacity circuits connect the remote radio sites back to the agency’s three national data centres, which enable the MCA’s £175m modernisation project to deliver future proofed digital services and communication capabilities that can both improve the vital search and rescue work of HM Coastguard.

“The demands of a 24-hour search and rescue operation means that downtime is never an option. The new network is delivering improvements in performance and enabling new services. Neos Networks has been the perfect partner to ensure that we deliver an efficient, reliable and stable connection to help HM Coastguard save lives and keep the public safe at sea.”

Peter Moir, Managing Director of Network Services at Telent

“Neos Networks is a trusted partner for managing and deploying critical national infrastructure for some of the UK’s most important institutions and services. Our 34,000km national fibre backbone network and ability to deliver advanced digital connectivity to some of the UK’s most hard to reach locations, ensures this critical infrastructure is always operational.”

Sarah Mills, Chief Revenue Officer at Neos Networks

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Gigabit Networks lights up the Midlands with Neos Networks' vast reach

Neos Networks is working with Gigabit Networks to bring high speed connectivity to the Midlands to bridge the digital divide.

Midlands

Introduction

Gigabit Networks has a vision to connect the Midlands. The alternative network provider, founded in 2019, is on a mission to bring high speed services to areas of the country that have historically struggled to establish reliable, high capacity connectivity.

Working in partnership with networking infrastructure providers, Neos Networks and CityFibre, Gigabit Networks is focused on improving connectivity in and around the ‘Golden Triangle’ of Nottingham, Leicester and Derby.

David Yates, co-founder of Gigabit Networks, says “Our initial research identified that 40,000 businesses are currently getting inadequate connectivity speeds. We felt that by offering ultra-fast, ultra-reliable connectivity to these regions, we could help them to digitally transform.”

The challenge

In partnership with CityFibre, Gigabit Networks is in the process of rolling out connectivity services to key cities across the Midlands including Derby, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Leicester and Nottingham.  The Full Fibre network in the cities will eventually cover up to 60,000 SME businesses and more than 750,000 households. As part of this, the business also hopes to offer high speed services to around 70,000 social housing residents, who have previously been denied access to high-speed internet – a problem that became particularly evident during the pandemic.

However, to roll out these services successfully, Gigabit Networks must ensure the underlying infrastructure is proven to be robust and resilient. To do this the alt net needed a scalable and reliable backhaul network. “When we looked in the marketplace and asked certain people for recommendations, the name that kept coming up was Neos Networks,” says Yates. “They’re investing a lot in their backbone network, and we knew instantly that they’d be able to provide the scalable backhaul services required to support our ambitions.”

The outcome

Having delivered exchange backhaul services to connectivity providers for a number of years Neos Networks was happy to help.

At Gigabit Networks request, Neos Networks delivered an initial 100Gbps Network-To-Network Interface (NNI) at Gigabit’s main data centre, based in Slough, as well as delivering exchange backhaul services from Derby and Coventry to the data centre. “This will provide us with enough capacity for between 5,000 – 6,000 subscribers across both cities,” says Yates.

Gigabit Networks has already placed additional orders for three more cities and its intentions are to provide enhanced connectivity in at least one more, in the region in partnership with Neos Networks.  As Yates says: “Time to market for these things is quite crucial. With Neos Networks, we know that their expansive network already serves the areas we’re targeting. This means that services can be delivered at speed. The faster we can get a service live, the better it will be for businesses and residents.”

Yates went on to say “The investment made in Neos Networks fibre footprint was not just in core cities but also second and third tier regions as well. This made them unique as it allowed them to offer high capacity connectivity in areas other providers couldn’t reach.”

Gigabit is also delivering on its goal to connect people in social housing to high-speed connectivity. “It’s very important for us that, what’s out there right now is not anywhere near where it needs to be to empower online learning and remote working. [Services are] difficult to find and not marketed well. We’re partnering with the cities and the housing associations and actively marketing this product to support social housing residents.”

Yates points out that the Midlands contains some of the most deprived areas of the UK. “You can make a difference here, by connecting communities. With Neos Networks, delivering our backhaul network we feel confident that we can deliver the service levels we want to provide our subscribers – we’re now actively reaching these local communities to help address their specific needs.”

“Especially coming out of the pandemic, we’ve realised how much reliable connectivity means to us all. We’re a digital nation now.”

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Seagreen connecting Scotland's largest offshore windfarms

When Seagreen Wind Energy needed to implement a flow of data between its planned substations and onshore operations centre, it looked to Neos Networks for communications infrastructure support.

Company Details
Seagreen

The Seagreen (Seagreen Wind Energy Ltd) is an offshore wind farm project in the Firth of Forth off the east coast of Scotland, with ambitions to be the nation’s largest generator of wind power in Scotland. Situated over 27km from the Angus coastline, the project will enable them to power up to one million homes each year with low carbon, renewable energy. But this substantial aspiration requires underlying high performing, reliable technology to help the UK continue to transform how it creates, stores and uses energy.

The scale and complexity of the project meant it was essential Seagreen created a partnership with a telecoms provider that could bring experience in critical infrastructure projects, and a proactive, problem solving mentality. Bringing vast experience and expertise working on renewables projects, Neos Networks was selected to play a vital role in keeping the business connected and their operations functioning.

The challenge

It is the responsibility of energy companies to adequately provide power or decrease generation as and when required. Neos Networks’ role will be to facilitate the flow of data between Seagreen’s planned substation and onshore operations centre, to allow for crucial data analysis. By enabling the transfer of data between on and offshore sites, access to important insights will now become available.

This will allow engineers to respond to changes in energy demand without having to leave the base to investigate in person. Analytics garnered via continuous monitoring can be fed back from the substation in real time, and adjustments can be made immediately. Faults at the substation can also be communicated back to the operations centre, so the engineer can be fully prepared before making any journey to carry out further examination or repairs.

“The UK needs to be generating 40GW of offshore wind power by 2030 to contribute toward net zero targets, so projects with the scale and ambition of Seagreen will be vital components of that low carbon vision.”

Mick McCaffery, Seagreen Systems Project Manager

The outcome

Neos Networks and Seagreen have been working collaboratively to install a comprehensive Wide Area Network (WAN) between the Seagreen substation at Tealing, Dundee and the operations centre in Montrose.

The current work will provide offshore wind farm engineers based at Montrose with the visibility of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and technical equipment at Tealing needed to manage the distribution of power to the substation. This will maximise the operational efficiency of Seagreen and help it remain compliant from regulatory and health and safety perspectives.

The success of the ongoing work at Seagreen is due in no small part to Neos Networks’ prior experience of working in renewables, as well as its collaborative approach to the project. It will play a huge role in helping the UK meet its net zero targets, as well as provide an estimated £1bn boost to the nation’s economy. Once complete in 2022/23, the development will be capable of generating 1075MW from its 114 North Sea turbines – enough to power 40% of all Scottish homes.

“Neos Networks has a strong pedigree in delivering wind farm network infrastructure and a comprehensive understanding of the consequences, should a wind farm become un-operational. As such, we are confident they will bring the necessary experience and expertise to deliver a solution that will help prevent such a scenario. We’re pleased to have a partner of this calibre on board, which will undoubtedly be to the benefit of the region and the country at large.”

Mick McCaffery, Seagreen Systems Project Manager

SD-WAN technology improves Bakkavor’s resilience and continues its digital transformation

Neos Networks supports Bakkavor’s network transformation with SD-WAN technology

Bakkavor is the UK’s leading supplier of fresh prepared food (FPF) and employs more than 19,000 people globally. With over 22 UK food manufacturing facilities spread across the nation, and a further 14 across the US and China, the retail giant provides services from ready meals to desserts and pizzas. And while the lockdown year of 2020 caused many businesses to pause transformation projects, for Bakkavor the increased demand for fresh prepared food led to an acceleration of its digital plans.

The challenge

With multiple sites to serve, and a network that was probably past its sell-by date, Bakkavor’s plan to embrace digital transformation and move its software and data centre requirements to the cloud demanded not just a network overhaul, but a thorough review of what the market could offer and what would represent best global practice.

When looking for a connectivity partner to help support these ambitions, it was important the provider they chose was mindful not only of Bakkavor’s IT challenges but also of keeping its 24/7 manufacturing centres operating at full capacity.

Moving its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, and other business solutions, to the cloud to enable more centralised control and uniform service, demands the best in network speed, resilience, and latency.

In fact, given Bakkavor’s status as part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure, it could only consider moving vital business resources and systems to the cloud if uptime could be guaranteed, downtime could be virtually eliminated, and overall business efficiency improved even further.

The outcome

Working with Bakkavor’s team, Neos Networks outlined the benefits of designing a new Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) that could use and integrate the very best connectivity at each location. SD-WAN creates a network overlay that can combine different traditional WAN and broadband connections to deliver a seamless view of the network regardless of the type of transport technology used.

SD-WAN also allows organisations to make real-time changes to bandwidth and instantly switch to different back-up technologies in the event of a point of failure. True resilience in the network is not only gained from a separate cable in an alternative duct, but also by having a separate system operating under the same SD-WAN control. This gives resilience at both a network level and a software control level and allows locations to be served by any transport mechanism, be that fibre, high-speed radio connectivity, or both.

Adopting SD-WAN from Neos Networks allowed Bakkavor to connect all of its manufacturing centres and offices to a central network in the cloud and continue the digital transformation of its business operations. Since implementation, the company has benefited from greater visibility of its enterprise-wide operations, real-time network insights, better diagnostic data and traffic management, as well as noticeably smoother resilience with instant network back-up.

Such has been the success of the initial UK project, that Neos Networks has been involved in extending the coverage of the SD-WAN network technology to cover Bakkavor’s production facilities and services in the USA.

“As a Critical National Infrastructure provider, ensuring our production facilities and multiple sites have a reliable, resilient network to operate is essential. The power of SD-WAN technology delivers independence to our sites, with improved network visibility and resilience, ensuring maximum up-time for our essential production facilities.”

Richard Barton – Network and Datacentre Domain Lead, Bakkavor.

About Bakkavor

Bakkavor is the leading provider of fresh prepared food (“FPF”) in the UK, with a growing international presence in the US and China. The Group is the number one by market share in the UK in the four FPF product categories of meals, salads, desserts, and pizza & bread, providing high-quality, fresh, healthy, and convenient food. Its customers include some of the UK’s leading grocery retailers, including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose. The Group’s International segment operates in the US and China.

Bakkavor was founded in 1986 and has its headquarters in London. The Group has more than 19,000 employees and operates 23 factories in the UK, 5 in the US and 9 in China.

Enabling Perth and Kinross Council’s smart city ambitions

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 Perth’s future: to transform it into one of “Europe’s great small cities”. Its documented aspirations for smart growth state that gaining “an international reputation for enterprise, learning, culture and an exceptional quality of life” by 2035 is a priority.

Central to realising those smart city ambitions is overcoming hurdles such as digital connectivity. Perth and Kinross Council identified that the key to boosting smart services and economic activity in the area was to lay full fibre connections to its own buildings, as the foundation for the modern-day connectivity demands of community assets.

Funding of £1m was made available via the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) as part of the Local Full Fibre Networks Challenge Fund; and nearly £0.5m of UK Government funding for digital connectivity from the Tay Cities Deal was also allocated to support the project.

With proven success on local government projects of similar importance and scale (such as Aberdeenshire), the Council looked to Neos Networks, one of the UK’s leading connectivity providers, to help them on their smart city journey.

The challenge

Perth and Kinross Council awarded Neos Networks a major gigabit-capable connectivity project in November 2020, through the Government’s RM6095 Dynamic Purchasing System for gigabit capable connectivity – which aims to provide UK public sector bodies with network infrastructure services through an easy to procure process.

Spanning 19.5km, the new end-to-end full fibre network will cover 34 locations across the city, including educational institutions, council buildings, leisure centres, care homes and residential homes, as well as public buildings located near the new 3,000-homes Perth West housing development.

The network is also vital to facilitate next generation technologies such as 5G and Internet of Things (IoT), crucial to futureproofing businesses in the area.

The outcome

Neos Networks has delivered the new network 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 & Kinross Council duct assets.

The economical use of existing and new fibre ducts has enabled 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 is also helping enable cloud connectivity for businesses and Fibre-To-The-Home services for residents.

“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 & Kinross Council

“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

Now the network is fully installed and operational, the network will help serve Council buildings and the local community for the next 20 years, under IRU agreements between the Council and Neos Networks, futureproofing the region against the ever-growing demands of the digital economy.

Aside from the direct benefits of connectivity, the project is supporting the local economy through investment, government driven initiatives and schools training programmes to deliver connectivity to rural communities, helping bridge the social divide.