UK Technology Park Southampton Science Park
installs real broadband
Occupiers
at Southampton Science Park, England can now enjoy lightning fast
communications following a major broadband installation by the
Southampton office of Mistral Internet, a leading business Internet
Service Provider (ISP).
In addition to the park's management
company, seven other on site businesses have now signed up for the
state-of-the-art "always on line" service which offers
high speed transmission of large amounts of electronic data and
unmetered internet access, giving significant savings in both time
and money.
The Science Park is out of reach for
ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and the cost of leased
lines to the park had made any kind of high speed data connection
prohibitive for the majority of businesses located there.
But Sam Strover, Mistral's corporate
account manager, tailored a service for Southampton Science Park. He says:
"Mistral worked closely with the managers and tenants of the
park for a year before we finally implemented a broadband solution
that was affordable, secure and resilient enough for all the
tenants' needs now and in the future."
Mistral has delivered a 100Mbps spur
from its core network and shaped the bandwidth on a special switch
located at the park which will allow them to increase and decrease
bandwidth remotely as client requirements change.
Unable to lay a high capacity optical
fibre network around the park due to tree preservation orders,
Mistral opted for a combination of laser and wireless networks to
give secure, high speed data connections (up to 8,000 kbps) to
detached buildings around the 26-acre park. Says Sam: " This
contract is very important to Mistral - it represents a new era in
data delivery for UK technology parks. We have had an overwhelming
response to our service and delivered new connections to many high
tech and research clients. We have also increased the speed of
connections to other clients for the same or less than they were
paying before and delivered new links to give resilience to other
clients networks. Overall we are saving clients around 50% of the
cost of other similar solutions."
"Technology Park with broadband
access is of great benefit"
The park's Chief Executive, Don Fox,
said he was delighted with the launch of the broadband service.
"The important issues for the park were the technical quality
of the access, a competitive price for our tenants, the almost
unlimited capacity for expansion and the pending availability of
radio local area networks in each building on the park. "A
technology park should lead the way and have the best modern
communications available and with this development we have achieved
that."
Technology Park - South England
front runner
Steve Davis, Director of the SEEDA
-supported Southampton Enterprise Hub, which provides wide-ranging
support to businesses in the area, also welcomed the new technology.
"The broadband service will provide a significant tool for
businesses to access their markets in full and provide connectivity
with customers and suppliers. It's the way forward and great news
for tenants."
Already signed up for the broadband
service are Exosect, Akelia Wireless, Mesophonics, iMeta, ICEM, MAC
Communications and Active Navigation.
IMeta, a leading e-commerce
specialist, was the first to hook up. Says Managing Director Adrian
Roe: "It's already made a big difference to us - it does what
it says on the tin. As ADSL is not available in the area, the
communal link, managed by Mistral, has provided us with affordable
and reliable connectivity. It has increased the scope of our
offering to customers as we can now easily demonstrate our
capability on line, as well as making our remote support far more
effective. Managing our customers' servers remotely is just like
sitting in front of them."
The cutting edge installation has
also been welcomed as a fillip for the Science Park's local
authority. Councillor Martin Hatley, Deputy Leader of Test Valley
Borough Council, said: "As one of the foremost science parks in
this country Southampton Science Park is developing commercial applications from
the academic world and in doing so it is generating between
GBP10-20m.into our local economy.
"Access to broadband now gives
the Science Park and its occupants a great competitive advantage and
make it even more attractive to companies at the forefront of the
country's future economic success. But the story gets even better -
with Southampton Science Park and UK supplier Mistral now able to offer access to
broadband to other users outside the Southampton technology park. I will look
forward to seeing broadband extended across the borough for business
as well as private use."
Pictured: Back row, from
L to R - Steve Davis, Don Fox, Sam Strover, Adrian Roe. Front Cllr
Martin Hatley. iMeta Managing Director Adrian Roe was the first to
sign up for broadband communication. |
