Hyperfast plans for Cornwall

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Hyperfast connected workspace that will create a working community for over 1,000 people is being planned in the Camborne Pool Redruth area of Cornwall.

The project will allow 500 jobs to be created through enabling business growth and attracting new businesses to the area.

The term ‘hyperfast’ connectivity refers to speeds of 10Gbps or more which provide new opportunities for companies involved in video media, big data, or other large data projects.

The Fibre Park project is gaining interest internationally as a destination to relocate businesses. Harri Myllynen, founder of app development companies Off Screen and Curlify, currently based in Finland and Estonia, said: “Our current upload speeds are very restrictive when transferring files over 1Gigabytes in size. 10Gbps speeds make the Fibre Park a highly attractive place to locate in.”

Cornwall is already gaining a reputation for leading edge superfast and ultrafast connectivity across 74 business parks and industrial estates. Through combining hyperfast connected hubs such as the Fibre Park into this network, project coordinator, Toby Parkins, says it will help ensure Cornwall will always be ahead of other areas in the world.

He said: “If you aim to be equal nationally, you will achieve a national level. If you aim internationally you will achieve far greater results, and this vision is behind the Fibre Park.

“It’s great to see the former Camborne School of Mines site, which of course has an international reputation, potentially being used again by global industries.”

The Fibre Park project would like to gather more views from local businesses. There is an event for potential businesses looking for offices to buy or rent at the Pool Innovation Centre on March 7. To book a place, click here.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Few will disagree that the quality of IT skills and education in Cornwall has been needing to improve for quite a while. If anyone objectively looks into this project in more depth they will see it will actually help improve the IT skills base in Cornwall through bringing industry and education closer together. There is an appetite from academic institutions to work together with industry to provide a more responsive education. Through the wider business community facilities proposed in this project, the IT skills much needed in all sectors of business will be better catered for and delivered.
    I do realise the educational links are not spelt out in the above article, but trust me, many conversations are sparking up between education and industry, and this can only be a good thing.

  2. Toby, now we see that estate agents say that “Houses without a connection or slow download speeds can be worth up to 20% less” http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/02/fast-broadband-vital-to-homebuyers.

    It takes two ends to make a connection, so hyper speeds are useless until they are commonly adopted, by which time there is zero international advantage. This is just crackpot thinking.

    In any case routers and switches on the Internet are unable to process these speeds and I would question whether there are many RAID devices fast enough to store the data. Parallel processing via coupled leased lines are the only practical solution. This project appears to be a complete waste of EU and UK funds – no wonder Cornwall is scraping along the bottom in business, industry and a skilled workforce.

  3. Toby, first you agree and then you disagree – classic double-talk. The fact is that this is a “vanity” project like HS2, the new Council building and £6m worth of Council wind turbines, all of which are virtually non-productive and will cost the consumers a large fortune. It only serves to widen the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots”; it fails to help develop a broad-based structure of skilled and IT-capable employees which will attract sustainable investment.

  4. I totally agree with Dudley’s point that we should consider further investment in increasing superfast broadband.
    The case for further economic investment in superfast as well as hyperfast must be considered with respect to the economic impact of each.
    The site at Pool has been carefully chosen because it can provide incredibly cost effective hyperfast connectivity.
    It may be there are further cabinets that could be upgraded that might support 10s of jobs. A similar level of investment in the hyperfast connectivity at the Fibre Park will support 1000+ jobs.

  5. Brilliant. I am a web designer and ISP at Porthtowan. I get ZERO mobile phone signal. I get 6Mb/s ADSL which crashes every time the wind blows.

    The same, or worse, goes for a massive section of Cornish residents, who should get at least some improvement and modernisation before the select few go off the planet with speeds that make very little difference in practice except boasting power.

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