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Scottish council deploys eGovernment network |
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Monday, 22 October 2007 |
East Renfrewshire Council's new £5 million converged communications and data network is now fully operational. This network, part of a five-year contract, allows the council to provide more extensive interactive communications with citizens as part of its commitment to making eGovernment services available to all. In addition the council is predicting a return in capital outlay in under two-and-half years. ntl:Telewest Business, part of the Virgin Media Group, replaced the Council's legacy 2Mbits/s leased line network with its high-bandwidth Ethernet Virtual Private Network (VPN) product. This provides a flexible, scalable and cost effective foundation to meet current and future bandwidth requirements and underpin the rollout of additional services and applications. One such money saving application is IP CCTV, which offers higher definition images than analogue and the option to digitally record images without the need for storing bulky tapes. The integration has ensured improved accessibility for citizens via the creation of multiple communities with one public access link per site. Three access sites have been connected with an ultra-fast gigabit connection facilitating the sharing of network resources across sites, reducing the cost and simplifying network management. 60 main offices across
East Renfrewshire, plus a number of smaller sites have been connected in total. These include the region's 30 primary and secondary schools, interconnecting more than 5,500 PCs to provide access to richer learning resources.
www.ntltelewestbusiness.co.uk
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