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Ask4 Ltd has made a significant strategic decision to build on its partnership with SICOM for the provision of high-speed fibre connectivity in student residences located in Bournemouth. This initiative is set to enhance the digital experience for students by connecting three vital locations through approximately 3 kilometers of dark fibre infrastructure.
By choosing SICOM's innovative solution, Ask4 Ltd has successfully eliminated ongoing fibre lease expenses, opting instead for a model that grants them full ownership of the fibre links. This move not only reduces operational costs but also empowers Ask4 with greater control over their network infrastructure.
The collaboration with SICOM reflects Ask4's commitment to providing top-notch connectivity for students, ensuring they have access to reliable and fast internet services. This strategic investment is expected to significantly improve the living experience for students, catering to their academic and recreational needs in an increasingly digital world.
Ask4 has once again partnered with SICOM to deliver high-speed fibre connectivity for its esteemed residential network located in West London. This significant upgrade will link 11 luxurious residential buildings, in addition to the Management Suite, enhancing the connectivity experience for residents. Transitioning from outdated legacy copper connections, Ask4 is now offering its residents access to an ultra-fast Gigabit solution, ensuring they enjoy unparalleled internet speeds.
In a strategic move to manage expenses effectively, Ask4 has opted for a SICOM model that grants them complete ownership of the fibre links. This decision not only stabilizes their costs but also empowers them with greater control over their network infrastructure. Additionally, SICOM will provide ongoing standard care support services for the fibre, ensuring that any issues are promptly addressed and that the network operates at peak performance.
Heriot-Watt University has made a strategic decision to partner with SICOM for the provision of high-speed cross-site fibre connectivity at its Galashiels campus. This initiative involves connecting two key locations on the campus: the Jean Muir Student Village and the High Mill building. By opting for SICOM’s solution, the university has effectively eliminated its ongoing fibre lease expenses, as they have chosen a model that allows them complete ownership of the fiber links.
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Ask4 is a leading provider of Internet, smart building tech and IT solutions, delivering connectivity and technology services to hundreds of thousands of users internationally. Their goal is to support its clients’ aims and deliver the best connectivity experience to their residents.
Ask4 has chosen SICOM as its prefered provider of Dark Fibre connectivity to its sites in York, Bath, Southampton, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Lancaster, Falmouth, Sheffield, Nottingham, Cardiff and Birmingham with all sites expecting to be delivered by the end of June 2024.
SICOM appointed as fibre specialists for new leak-sensing project.
SICOM has been appointed by Focus Sensors Ltd as dark-fibre specialists in a new £1.49m project supported by the OFWAT Water Breakthrough Challenge and Severn Trent Water.
By 2030 the water industry must reduce leakage by 1 billion litres/day to ensure future water supplies. This requires step change innovation that is more accurate and affordable than current leak detection tools. This can be delivered by using fibre-optic cables already adjacent to water pipes as leak sensors.
This concept was demonstrated in the first catalyst funding round (Dark Fibre 1). This project, Dark Fibre 2, builds on this work to solve remaining challenges, prove at scale and build industry confidence. The solution will then be brought to market to enable reductions in leakage whilst keeping customers’ bills low.
Focus Sensors’ IndusTM system turns standard telecommunications optical fibres into thousands of sensors. When connected to dark optical fibres within existing carrier network cables, Indus can be used to sense and locate leaks from water pipes.
Leaks are a major issue for water companies and this project, financed by the OFWAT Innovation Fund and supported by Severn Trent Water, will enable dark fibre leak detection to be demonstrated and brought as a commercial basis for adoption by water companies all over the UK.
SICOM are specialists in dark fibre and are a key part of the project. Our role is to provide dark fibre in five test areas. In doing so, we will develop a methodology to locate and commission fibre networks for leak detection using Indus.
SICOM undertook a comprehensive survey of all carriers and dark fibre in the Swindon area and provided detailed options including costs to connect to each carrier using either dark fibre or dedicated fibre with multiple wavelengths.
SICOM’s data centre survey team evaluated a privately owned location in the midlands and found several other carriers nearby that could be connected diversely at a cost of less than £100,000. This is likely to have added many times this in value to the site because prospective buyers now know that having four or five carriers is easily achievable.
SICOM have been engaged by GCRE (Global Centre of Railway Excellence) to consult on the infrastructure requirements for their new site in South Wales. SICOM researched the area and found a number of options to connect to the government network, other data centres, the internet and Cloud Service Providers using either leased bandwidth or dark fibre for the “last mile”. The adoption of an Open Access Network Partnership with a suitable business ISP was recommended to provide fast and flexible provisioning of many services ranging from broadband-level bandwidth up to optical wavelengths. Openreach was contracted to provide diversely-routed multi-fibre cables between the site and two local exchanges in preparation for the data centre opening next year.