LCR Connect - Full Fibre Connectivity in Liverpool
Nov 22, 2024
LCR Connect is a full-fibre, ultrafast, gigabit-capable network spanning the Liverpool City Region – it’s a gateway for businesses to access next-generation future-proofed and cloud-enabled technologies.
As cities consume greater amounts of data and require faster, highly available Internet services, full fibre infrastructure delivers the leased line and FTTP speeds required to work in the Cloud, whether this is accounting packages, online Teams meetings or VoIP phone services, LCR Connect is making this possible in Liverpool.
The LCR Connect fibre network is a publicly owned joint venture between ITS Technology Group (25%), Liverpool City Region (50%) and NGE (25%). It will see Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral, Knowsley, Halton and St Helens connect with over 130 miles (212 kilometres) of gigabit-capable fibre.
The first part of this £30m project is to connect three fibre transatlantic cables into the core economic centres in the Liverpool City Region’s local authority areas. The full programme of works will create the full LCR Connect fibre network over the coming two years.
In order to limit disruption to public transport and the road network, ITS Technology Group and their build partner NGE (an independent French company with 14,500 employees and a turnover of €2.5 billion) will use innovative deployment methods such as PIA (Physical Infrastructure Access) which is the granting of the right for communications infrastructure operators such as ITS Technology Group so share the pre-existing Openreach duct and pole infrastructure in order to prevent the need for new civils works.
What’s the difference between an LCR Connect leased line and BT, Virgin or TalkTalk?
In order to answer this question, it helps to explain how the Internet works, and how a full fibre, or leased line service is actually delivered. There are two main components (putting it very simply), Infrastructure Operators and Service Providers.
Infrastructure Operators
These are the companies that actually own and operate the fibre in the ground. Until recently, full fibre or leased line options for businesses have been limited to specific fibre infrastructure operators, these mainly being BT Openreach and Virgin Media.
Service Providers
Service Providers then rent the infrastructure from the Infrastructure Operators to move your data around. If for example you have a Virgin leased line, Virgin will be both Infrastructure Operator and Service Provider, but if you had a full fibre service from TalkTalk Business, Sky Ethernet or BT Wholesale for example, then you would have Openreach as the Infrastructure Operator and one of those three as the Service Provider.
So now enter ITS Technology Group, having successfully built new fibre networks in everywhere from Greenwich and Mayfair, to Tameside and Bristol, ITS were selected to deliver the new fibre infrastructure across the Liverpool City Region.
ITS Technology Group act as both Infrastructure Operator and Service Provider with a range of high availability, full fibre business Internet services to disrupt the market in the Liverpool City Region, all sitting under the LCR Connect brand.
These services are:
FibreOne
This is an equivalent FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) service which has the key features below:
Two speed variants
100Mbps FibreOne – 100Mbps download/50Mbps upload
200Mbps FibreOne – 200Mbps download/50Mbps upload
15-25 day installation lead time
Unlimited usage
48 hour fault fix SLA (Service Level Agreement)
Perfect for SOHO or smaller branch offices
Supports VoIP and Video Conferencing (e.g. Teams)
Price guarantee
FibreLight
This is a contended full fibre leased line service which has the key features below:
Symmetrical upload/download up to 500Mbps
15-25 day installation lead time
Unlimited usage
10 hour fault fix SLA (Service Level Agreement)
Low contention (guaranteed minimum of 60% of headline speed)
Supports VoIP and Video Conferencing (e.g. Teams)
Price guarantee
Fibre Bright
This is a dedicated/uncontedned full fibre leased line service which has the key features below:
Symmetrical upload/download up to 10Gbps
15-25 day installation lead time
Unlimited usage
6 hour fault fix SLA (Service Level Agreement)
Dedicated bandwidth
Supports VoIP and Video Conferencing (e.g. Teams)
Price guarantee
So where does Amvia fit in to all this? Can I not just go direct to ITS Technology Group?
Amvia are a long standing partner of ITS Technology Group and one of the original Faster Britain partners and so deliver Faster Britain leased line and FTTP solutions on the LCR Connect network.
As a full Managed Service Provider, Amvia can not only deliver the most competitive rates for full fibre leased lines and FTTP, we can also provide VoIP, Teams Calling, Microsoft 365 and Cyber Security service (Barracuda, Bitdefender, Microsoft Defender).
With 24/7 support and proactively monitored services, Amvia supports the digital delivery for customers ranging from eharmony and HBO to local businesses across the UK.
For more information on LCR Connect packages or to get a free quote in as little as 45 seconds, visit our dedicated LCR Connect page.
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