6^th January 2008, Belfast.

The announcement today of a contract to add a new direct link into transatlantic data routes to the USA signals a further step in the NI Government’s plan for economic development and inward investment. 

Northern Ireland has increasingly been recognised by US-based enterprise as a platform for entry into European markets.  The new transatlantic capacity expected to come on-stream in 2010 will address three significant issues:

• Competitiveness with European gateway/hubs such as Amsterdam,
• Over-dependence on regional traffic routing via London and Dublin
• Reduction of round-trip delays (latency) on traditional routes

Reducing latency is key to attracting new information-intensive industries and data-centres – particularly for the media, health and financial services sectors. 

The new link will be achieved by adding a spur into a fibre route that currently passes to the north of Ireland and this high-speed capacity will be routed around Northern Ireland via the Saturn Open Access ring that has interconnectivity in 8 major towns and cities. 

Improving the attractiveness of NI for overseas enterprise investment is however only one of the major benefits.   The new wholesale capacity is also expected play a vital role in enabling the transformation of local broadband access services.

The new openly competitive backhaul capacity will increase the investment viability for locally independent utility network operators providing high-quality and future-proofed fibre access for thousands of homes and offices – emulating the highly successful approach taken in Sweden over the past 5 years. 

The first UK example of this new Open Access approach, independent of traditional ‘last generation’ providers, is being deployed at Titanic Quarter, Belfast – the massive regeneration of the former Harland and Wolff shipyard.

The contract announced today follows a long period of intense negotiation and debate.  Northern Ireland’s Department for Enterprise Trade and Investment should be congratulated on their determination to better serve their economy by injecting some fresh thinking into infrastructure provision.

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For more information on Project Kelvin – the new link into the transatlantic route – see BBC report 

Link to more information on the Titanic Quarter Open Network

the Titanic Quarter Video can be downloaded via:http://files.sonicacademy.com/TQVideo/TqVideo.html