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10Gbps Independent Internet Connection to be installed in the Baltic Triangle

Merseyside businesses will now be able to achieve significantly faster broadband speeds thanks to a unique partnership in the city’s much-heralded Baltic Triangle Quarter. IX Liverpool and Baltic Broadband have collaborated to install a 10Gbps Internet connection into the Baltic Triangle and as are able to offer businesses the fastest speeds available in Merseyside at highly competitive rates. Businesses in the city region have long complained about the relatively slow broadband speeds compared to other parts of the UK and this new development puts Liverpool on an equal footing with London, Cardiff and Manchester. IX Liverpool is a not for profit Internet Exchange company whose main aim is to build the Internet here in the Liverpool City Region and is founded on the principles of a collaborative and co-operative organisation. IX Liverpool has been supported by more than £40,000 of donations from the local digital community to help to make internet connectivity faster, most cost effective and of higher quality. Local businessman Prof. Matt Wilson and Chair of IX Liverpool and says, ”We’ve been concerned for some time about top quality connectivity in the Liverpool City Region and so we’ve decided to DO something about it. “We haven’t received a penny of public money from the Government or the EU but we’ve had great support from the digital business community and we’re going from strength to strength. “Hopefully we can help to attract more digital companies to come to Merseyside and create more jobs and investment in our future. “The Liverpool Internet Exchange, which is based in the Baltic Triangle, can’t exist without the support of commercial providers like Baltic Broadband and other Internet Service Providers who work together to make the internet better for everyone. “Already, lots of businesses have been in touch and it’d be great to hear from more – we’re always ready to listen and we need as many ambitious and forward-thinking entrepreneurs as possible to get in touch so that the momentum continues. You don’t need to be part of the Baltic Triangle either to take advantage of this new opportunity.” The first part of Liverpool’s Internet Exchange has been built at Baltic Creative’s campus located within the Baltic Triangle and is featured in the region’s published Liverpool City Region Growth Strategy. Plans are now underway for the next stage. IX Liverpool are working with Liverpool and Wirral councils in order to expand the coverage of the exchange to other parts of the region beyond the city of Liverpool. The partnership also plans to enable entire buildings that serve multiple businesses with 1Gbps connectivity through a groundbreaking scheme aimed at landlords called BBEBBaltic Broadband Enabled Buildings.   BBEB will allow landlords to attract high quality tenants by offering them exceptionally fast internet speeds that are available from the day they move in thanks to a 60 second signup process. Importantly, IX Liverpool is also the first Internet Exchange in the UK to host a seperate network dedicated for the Internet of Things – a unique selling point for the area. Notes to Editors   Background and Technical Notes Tenants of the Baltic Triangle also have access to the city wide Internet of Things network (IOT) (built thanks to donations from businesses based at Baltic Creative CIC), allowing them free access to design, build and create IOT applications for their business or the community. IOT is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enables these objects to connect and exchange data. Experts estimate that the IOT will consist of about 30 billion objects by 2020.  It is also estimated that the UK market value of IOT will reach £322 billion by 2020. IX Liverpool is the first Internet Exchange in the UK to host a seperate network dedicated for IOT. In addition to this announcement, the team at IX Liverpool is working at extending the exchange to other parts of the region including the Fabric District in the city centre (London Road) and the Wirral and are activity looking at ways of funding this expansion and are also looking for volunteers for this project. Internet Exchanges are the central point in which networks (ISPs like BT, Sky, Virgin Media, Baltic Broadband etc) connect to each other so their customers can access each others networks (called exchanging traffic) and are often located in the same city as those networks. This avoids the need for data to travel to other cities (potentially on other continents) to get from one network to another, thus reducing latency, improving speed and reliability for end users. Internet Exchanges also help content delivery networks (CDNs) exchange Internet traffic between their networks for example Facebook, Twitter, Netflix and BBC iplayer, many of which keep content local to the region so when we watch a YouTube Video, Netflix film or even access Facebook the content is served out of the Liverpool exchange to keep it fast and reliable. Without a local Internet Exchange (like London, Leeds, Cardiff and Manchester) ISPs and content providers typically have slower, more limited connections to end users than to the rest of the country, resulting in poor broadband speeds that will ultimately grind the local digital economy to a halt and disadvantage domestic customers when they require fast and reliable connectivity to digital services. Baltic Broadband is a startup Internet Service Provider based in Liverpool whose aim it is to bring low cost high quality Internet connections to businesses in the region.  As a member of IX Liverpool, it routes traffic through the exchange to help it grow while helping the exchange attract other members who will join once there are multiple members present. Businesses who build their infrastructure in the cloud must consider operational costs, performance, scalability, and security, while ensuring they have rapid and Agile Connectivity to their Cloud provider. From the 1st of March 2018, IX Liverpool will also be able to offer connections from the exchange directly to cloud providers (bypassing the internet) to help with low latency applications such as Virtual Reality, Crypto Currencies, Rendering and Big Data. IX Liverpool now allows members to connect over an elastic, SDN-based, ubiquitous Ethernet fabric allowing customers wider coverage, speed to market while reducing costs. So far, the list of cloud providers has been confirmed as:

  • Amazon Web Services
  • Google Cloud Platform
  • Salesforce.com
  • Oracle Cloud
  • IBM Bluemix
  • SAP
  • Alibaba Cloud
  • Webair
  Connections of 10Mbps to 1Gbps are currently possible to the providers above with higher speeds available towards the end of the summer. In terms of the Cloud connections, businesses based in the Baltic Triangle now have direct access to the networks of such cloud providers, helping them build their IT infrastructure in the cloud while having low latency access normally only available to larger companies with dedicated infrastructure. Biographies   IX Liverpool was established in 2016 as a not for profit company limited by guarantee and is directly connected to the London Internet Exchange which helps bring better connectivity to the region. Baltic Broadband is an independent network and local internet registry, it has infrastructure throughout the UK and terminates Internet traffic in London Telehouse, Manchester Equinix and now in IX Liverpool – ensuring high quality & low latency routes, resulting in high quality connections for businesses. Disclaimer Baltic Creative CIC is providing land for IX Liverpool to host it’s exchange as a goodwill gesture. Please note that Baltic Creative CIC is not responsible for and/or involved in either IX Liverpool or Baltic Broadband and their respective operations. References More information on Baltic Broadband Enabled Buildings at https://www.balticbroadband.com/enabled-buildings/ More information on  IX Liverpool Cloud Connections at https://www.ixliverpool.net/products-services/  ]]>

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