Posted: 04th Apr, 2011 By: MarkJ

The UK city of
Liverpool looks set to benefit from a new superfast fibre optic network that will link
Liverpool City Council's (LCC) existing cable with
Global Crossing's global IP-based network. The £1m '
Networks Service Demonstrator' project (
Fibrenet) will be partly funded by a grant of £400k from the
Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and is being lead by
AIMES Grid Services.
The city's existing fibre network already links up many universities, hospitals and businesses. At present it is mostly used for CCTV traffic control. Fibrenet intends to adopt new switching equipment from
Virgin Media Business, thus allowing the cable to be directly connected into a high capacity (
10Gbps) transatlantic cable.
AIMES CEO, Professor Dennis Kehoe, said (Liverpool Daily Post):"Liverpool all of a sudden will become a high fibre connected city, not only enabling local businesses to benefit, but also attracting the trialling of new services, making Liverpool a digital destination, which it has not been previously. We will be able to compete with Manchester and on a national level."
The project is one of five 'Networks Service Demonstrators' selected by the TSB last November 2010 to become national Hotspots where businesses will be able to test new business models, applications and services that can be supported by advanced, open and flexible networks and network services. It should pave the way for both faster and cheaper business broadband ISP solutions.