SSE Enterprise Telecoms to Launch Jisc’s Janet South Fibre Network

Fibre optic comms provider SSE Enterprise Telecoms has been chosen by Jisc to launch the Janet South network. The rollout will see 7 more BT exchanges unbundled and will utilise 4 existing Points of Presence (PoPs) to provide improved connectivity to 11 UK universities and 80 local colleges.

The high-speed Janet Network provides connectivity for millions of people working in the UK research and education sector. SSE Enterprise Telecoms are already helping to supply that, in fact their pre-existing contract has also just been “significantly extended” (i.e. their core network will be utilised by Jisc’s UK backbone network for a further nine years until 2028).

SSEET builds and manages a 12,000km+ long fibre optic and Ethernet network across the United Kingdom (via 265+ Points of Presence and 80 commercial data centres), which is capable of delivering bandwidth speeds of up to 10Gbps and even 100Gbps in some areas (i.e. some locations can only handle speeds of up to 1Gbps).

Colin Sempill, MD of SSEET, said:

“Through utilising our expansive network and industry expertise, Jisc has been able to provide vital connectivity to some of the UK’s most critical education and research facilities. Thanks to our high capacity, low latency services these institutions can collaborate across the UK and the globe.

We’re very excited to announce the launch of the Janet South Network partnership and further extension of the UK backbone network, which will keep vital institutions producing ground-breaking research and development for years to come, particularly as 5G and internet-enabled devices become more mainstream.

SSE Enterprise Telecoms views every customer individually and we understand that they require a tailored approach when it comes to their unique network requirements. There’s no one-size-fits-all plan and this is why we’ve built such a solid relationship with Jisc over nearly two decades.”

Apparently Southampton and Surrey will be among the 11 new universities to benefit, while additional local colleges will be connected between Aldershot and Bournemouth. The announcement comes shortly after SSEET confirmed that Infracapital (M&G Prudential) had completed its £380m acquisition of a 50% stake in the operator.

By working closely together for almost 20 years, Jisc has also been able to provide the critical connectivity required for a large number of UK education and research facilities, including access to CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerating experiment in Switzerland.

You can find out more about Janet’s new network plans by checking out this video from last year.