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What is Project ATLAS?
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Project ATLAS stands for ‘Accessing Telecoms Links Across Scotland’ and is a project run by Scottish Enterprise, designed to promote the use of affordable, advanced broadband tele-communications services to Scottish businesses based within certain pre-selected business parks across Scotland. Project ATLAS is funded by the Scottish Enterprise Network and the European Regional Development Fund. The design and objectives of the project have been approved by the European Union's Competition Directorate.
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Where is Project ATLAS being implemented?
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Project ATLAS has been implemented into the following six business parks located across Scotland: Aberdeen Science & Technology Park, Dundee Technology Park, Heriot-Watt Research Park, Strathclyde Business Park, West of Scotland Science Park, Crichton Campus
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How does the business side of Project ATLAS work?
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AtlasConnect Ltd, on behalf of Scottish Enterprise, has built un-lit, dark fibre telecoms networks on six business parks across Scotland . AtlasConnect Ltd has employed Atkins as the Asset Manager to run, maintain and market the six networks on its behalf.
Atkins sign up suppliers of advanced broadband telecoms services and other on-line services to connect to the park networks. These suppliers subsequently make their services available to customers on the parks. It is anticipated that these will, in many cases, be familiar names in the telecoms sector.
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How much will the new services cost?
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AtlasConnect Ltd cannot influence the end-user pricing presented to customers by the service providers, as this will be determined by the market at the time. It will, however, make the charges for wholesale access available on www.atlasbroadband.co.uk so that they are visible to all businesses and end-users for comparison.
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What pricing will be offered by the telecoms service providers?
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That is their decision to make according to market at the time and is not controlled by AtlasConnect Ltd in any way. However, as AtlasConnect Ltd is providing them with a highly competitive route to customers, which will save them the cost of building their own on-park networks, it is expected that the economies involved will result in lower end-user prices than would otherwise be expected for advanced broadband services.
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Are companies based on the parks obliged to use the ATLAS network?
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No. It is not compulsory for companies to use the fibre connection into their buildings. Some companies may not have a current requirement for fibre access to support their telecommunications needs, although the new infrastructure should be viewed as a strategic investment in advanced infrastructure which will be present for perhaps 15 to 20 years. Now, or at some point in the future, given the huge explosion in data, internet access and internet protocol generally, it is likely that companies of all sizes will want to have the best physical connection into their building. Currently - that is fibre.
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Why doesn’t ATLAS use existing telecoms infrastructure already on the parks, rather than creating new networks?
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AtlasConnect Ltd has had discussions with existing infrastructure providers on all six business parks concerned to ascertain suitability and feasibility for possible use. This process has confirmed that none of the existing infrastructures are suitable for the ATLAS project.
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When will the new infrastructures be complete?
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The new infrastructures are now complete.
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What type of broadband will be available (bandwidth)?
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The type of broadband delivery will be determined by the telecoms service providers, but it could well be 10 MB/s, 20 MB/s, 100 MB/s or even more. The key thing is that because the physical connection is single mode fibre, the service provider can scale up the bandwidth without any real limitation. For example, a switch or router that has a 1 GB/s port can utilise the full 1GB/s across the fibre from end-to-end.
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When can businesses based on the six parks contact telecoms service providers?
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Businesses based on the six parks can contact telecoms service providers now at their own convenience. All of the major telecoms service providers and internet service providers in Scotland are already aware of the ATLAS project and what it will mean for them in terms of delivering their services to businesses and end-users.
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When and how will telecoms service providers be able to deliver their services to businesses based on the six parks?
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Telecoms service providers will be able to provide services as soon as they have connected their own networks to the new business park networks. They can do this by joining their cables at the NAP (Neutral Access Point) at the edge of the parks on to the new networks installed by AtlasConnect Ltd. In order to provide services to customers on the parks it is simply a case of linking them across in the Co-Location Building . Provision should usually be possible within 24 hours.
A number of telecoms service providers whose existing networks pass near the business parks have already expressed interest in connecting to the Atlas networks, although they have yet to connect to the parks. However, dialogue is under way as installation of the infrastructures nears completion.
There may also be some new service providers who could locate themselves in the Co-Location Building and provide services to end-user customers from there. These could be hosting or business continuity services providers, for example.
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Are there any plans to roll project ATLAS out across the rest of Scotland?
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No, not at present. Scottish Enterprise has selected the six afore mentioned business parks only for this pilot advanced broadband project. Scottish Enterprise is not a telecoms service provider and does not anticipate making any further investments until the impact of this current project can be assessed. It will be a number of years before the project can be effectively assessed.
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How will network maintenance be undertaken?
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An Asset Manager, Atkins, has been appointed and is responsible for maintaining the fibre networks on the six business parks. The providers of telecoms and other on-line services will be responsible for the contract that they have with the on-park business customers. Any service issues relating to the fibre network will be handled between Atkins and the relevant service providers.
On-park customers’ contracts will be with their service providers and they need only deal with their supplier in the normal way.
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What has been constructed by Project ATLAS at the six business parks?
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Each business park has dual rings of dark, fibre-optic cable running around it, with cable legs running out to each building on the park. There is also a Co-Location Building (CLB) on each park, which is used for telecommunications inter-connect and data storage equipment. There are entry points (Neutral Access Points) where any private sector telecoms company can connect up its own external network to the Atlas on-park network, thereby gaining access to buildings and potential customers on the park.
The new infrastructures in place provide fibre access for every building on the business parks, irrespective of size of business or current need. The infrastructures are also available for use by any service provider who wishes to use them to deliver advanced broadband services to customers on the six parks concerned.
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Which service providers will be available to businesses in the six parks?
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Discussions with telecoms service providers are on-going.
The main telecoms service providers with infrastructure near to some, or all of the parks include Thus, Telewest, NTL, Cable & Wireless, Neos Networks and BT. It is anticipated that contracts with some of these service providers will be signed to enable them to offer their services as soon as the park networks have been built.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should also be able to offer their services to businesses located on the parks, but will usually need to use one of the main telecoms service providers to handle their backhaul traffic to their nearest PoP (point of presence).
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