Birmingham IP network connects 750 council sites

Birmingham City Council has completed the installation of one of the largest converged networks ever introduced by a local authority, connecting more than 750 schools, libraries and offices.

Service Birmingham, a £475m partnership between the council and Capita which aims to save £1bn over 10 years, has completed the final phase of the IP network to improve communications and access to services.

‘The first two phases were completed last year to improve the resilience of the network,’ said Birmingham’s head of networks Andrew Mackey.

‘The final phase included a total refresh of the local area network. We replaced more than 27,000 ports to future proof the network and prepare for technologies such as voice over IP.’

The Cisco IP network supports more than 20,000 users and will deliver at least 10Mbit/s and up to 1Gbit/s to each site.

Martin Jackson, consultant at local government user group Society of Information Technology Management, says authorities are always looking to invest in IT. ‘A converged network is a strong and stable backbone on which to build new technology,’ he said.