Wales, U.K., is launching a large-scale network to connect public services like schools, police and hospitals through a central network.
The project, called Public Sector Broadband Aggregation, has already connected 2,000 public sector sites. The country expects that figure to rise to 10,000 over the next few years. Eventually all 350,000 public sector workers in Wales – including several thousand home-based staff – will be able to access the network.
The network was first used in 2009 to create a secure system for information sharing between agencies in health, local government and education, in preparation for the expected swine flu pandemic.
The PSBA network is based on Cisco technology and is being deployed over a seven-year period by Logicalis, a provider of information communication technology services.
Chris Gabriel, marketing and solutions director at Logicalis, says the network will produce significant cost savings for the Welsh government.
The network uses both high-capacity wired and wireless technology. The wireless technology is used for long-haul purposes in rural areas as well as backup. Logicalis plans to integrate more wireless technology into the network as it continues its buildout.