NTL secure NI broadband contract

NTL's business division has won a contract to design and implement a high-speed broadband network to connect 23 further and higher educational institutions across Northern Ireland.

The £2.5 million Northern Ireland Regional Area Network (NIRAN) will be installed by the end of October 2004 and will link four higher education institutions, sixteen further education colleges, one department of agriculture and rural development college and two other education and research establishments.

Commenting on the three year deal, which may get a two year extension, David Armstrong, Area Sales Director, ntl’s business division in Northern Ireland, said: “NTL has a 40 year heritage of working with the public sector. We have a very successful track record of working in partnership with organisations in Local Government and education to deliver large scale broadband implementations that offer real benefit.

"The NIRAN infrastructure provides a flexible long-term solution and we are confident that it will effectively support the future development of Northern Ireland’s further and higher education sector.”

NIRAN will also provide high-speed access to the Internet and to JANET, the UK-wide education and research network. In connecting to JANET, NIRAN will link into SuperJANET – the UK national education backbone – which enables users of NIRAN to achieve full broadband access to educational content and applications across the UK (and vice versa).

Broadband connections for each of the sites will range from 10MB to 1GB, depending on the individual site’s requirements. The network is designed to be fully scalable, enabling the provision of additional bandwidth when and where necessary.

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