The challenge
Initially established to serve the Highlands of Scotland, HighNet had ambitious plans for business growth. In 2011, the company set out to become a fully-fledged national Internet Service Provider (ISP) and called on Neos Networks to help extend its national network footprint to deliver resilient and scalable solutions – including connectivity, mobile data, disaster recovery and converged voice and data services – to customers across the UK. Three years on and HighNet has achieved its key objective to establish its own successful ISP network, so much so that customer demand had begun to outstrip capacity.
Key to HighNet’s decision to partner with us was our high-capacity UK-wide network and the huge success of the first implementation, which was completed ahead of schedule. As HighNet was confident of the proven quality and reliability of our services, we were the first port of call to deliver the 10Gb core network upgrade needed to continue to grow the business.
The outcome
The geographical reach and speed of our scalable network solution, together with our high-specification, UK-wide co-location facilities, underpin HighNet’s range of enterprise-class services and have played a key part in the impressive growth it has seen over recent years. In fact, in partnership with Neos Networks, HighNet has achieved its ambition to build a private national ISP infrastructure in order to deliver its expanding service portfolio to enterprise customers anywhere in the UK. To make this vision a reality, in 2011, we delivered a high-capacity national virtual private network (VPN), enabling HighNet to broaden its reach from its primary base in Inverness, by co-locating its equipment in key data centre locations including Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London and Manchester.
While the original project was expected to run for five years, HighNet’s objectives were met a year ahead of schedule. This, coupled with a dramatic increase in customer demand for HighNet’s ISP services, prompted its latest requirement to upgrade the network. The 10Gb network capability will not only allow HighNet to support its many new and existing customers; it will also give HighNet the ability to deliver wholesale services and become a network aggregator as well as an ISP.
The upgraded network solution was rapidly provisioned by our highly skilled and experienced team, who go above and beyond, providing a significant amount of support right from the initial deployment stage to the present day. HighNet has benefited from working with the same team from day one and the strong partnership between the two companies has been instrumental in building HighNet’s network from the ground-up.
“Since partnering with Neos Networks in 2011, with the aim of expanding our ISP business, we’ve experienced double digit growth, achieving 17 percent growth over the last year alone. Our initial requirement was for a scalable UK-wide solution, offering the most comprehensive geographical presence possible, to grow our customer base. This has more than been met within four years, which is significantly sooner than we anticipated. Following this great success, we’re keen to ensure that our business continues to grow and we can now be confident that we can keep up with the increased demand from our new and existing customers.”
David Alldrit, Technology and Innovation Director at HighNet
About HighNet
Founded in 1994, HighNet initially marketed call routing services to customers in the Highlands of Scotland and the company has been expanding its service portfolio and geographical reach ever since. Today, HighNet is Scotland’s leading business communications provider, providing access to a wide range of telecoms services, while always ensuring a high level of service and value for money for its customers. The company’s services are sold through more than 120 channel partners across the country.
