Over the next 18 months SSE Enterprise Telecoms will unbundle 177 BT exchanges, accessing an additional 180,000 UK business postcodes. All 177 exchanges will have capacities of up to 100Gbps, meeting the demands for higher bandwidth and data.
When surveyed, 25% of Service Providers revealed they plan to increase their networks up to 100Gbps from 2020. The first 51 exchanges are already on net, enabling Service Providers to increase their network reach and capacity. The new network roll-out prioritises the most densely populated metro city areas, including London, which supports the research findings that on-net capability is a key driver for Service Providers.
Regional businesses demand on-net connectivity
The research revealed a 20% increase in core network capacity demand from businesses in regional UK towns over the next two years. In response, SSE Enterprise Telecoms is launching five geographically spread optical-enabled data centres, serving areas where on-net access is in high demand. These are:
•Northampton (Node 4)
•Milton Keynes (Pulsant)
•Hemel (Gyron, Centro)
•Stockley Park (Virtus 5)
•Newport, Wales (Next Gen Data)
When examining what’s behind this surge in capacity demand from UK businesses, a vast majority of enterprises highlighted ‘a reduction in IT estate costs’ and an ‘increase in cloud adoption’ as the two most important drivers for their IT strategy for 2020 and beyond. The five data centres SSE Enterprise Telecoms has brought on-net will enable enterprises to access public clouds directly, without the need to procure individual connections into each cloud provider. This makes it straightforward for enterprises to achieve their cloud adoption strategy through one supplier, no matter where they’re located.
Colin Sempill, Chief Executive, SSE Enterprise Telecoms said: “We’re continually investing in our customers’ needs, providing the most robust services that their businesses require. Whether that’s increasing our connectivity footprint by deploying our five new optical-enabled data centres in high demand regional blackspots or investing to provide densification solutions for businesses in metro city areas like London”.
“As enterprises respond to emerging technology trends and with the rise of the Internet of Things, they’re relying on high capacity networks to fuel the future of Industry 4.0. Our recent network investment supports this by ensuring we’re in the best position to serve our customers both now and in the future”.