MLL Lights Up Adur and Worthing Council’s Full Fibre Network

The Adur & Worthing Councils have just handed UK business ISP MLL Telecom a 5-year contract to provide them with a managed network service, which will make use of a new Dark Fibre network to support public WiFi, CCTV, Community Safety CCTV for Sussex Police, as well as LPWAN and IoT sensors.

We should point out that the full fibre network is currently in the process of being deployed by Cityfibre as part of the publicly funded West Sussex Gigabit project (this is currently being extended – here). Cityfibre are also building a new 1Gbps FTTP broadband network for local homes and businesses in the area, but that’s a separate commercial project (here).

Under MLL’s plan the provider has already begun to implement their new managed service overlay across the network, as well as providing firewalls and SD-WANs over a 54km long stretch of Cityfibre’s dark fibre infrastructure (this is due to cover 83 public sector sites by late 2022). The first phase of MLL’s contract – to be completed next spring – encompasses an initial 43 of these sites.

Paul Brewer, Adur & Worthing Councils’ Director for Digital, said:

“MLL’s technology expertise and comprehensive network management services will ensure the investment in our dark fibre infrastructure is fully maximised and future-proofed. The network services MLL provides will deliver the flexibility and scalability we need to support our continuing digital transformation objectives, allowing us to respond to future digital requirements and opportunities – for the benefit of our citizens, employees and businesses.”

It’s expected that the service will, among other things, help to support the launch of an “extensive Public Wi-Fi network” (aka – Citizen Wi-Fi) sometime next year, which will enable coverage in and around public buildings and facilities including leisure centres and seafront amenities.