Will be able to build infrastructure for RSPs to connect to its data centres

As featured in: ARN, CRN, Business IT, IT Brief AU, IT Wire, Technology Decisions, CFO Tech, Armidale Express, Northern Daily Leader

13 January 2021 – Data centre network provider Leading Edge Data Centres has entered into a wholesale broadband agreement with NBN Co for facilities access service.

Under the agreement, Leading Edge will be able to build infrastructure for all retail service providers (RSP) to connect to its data centres across Australia.

According to the provider, this will decrease reliance on backhaul networks, achieving higher bandwidth and improved download speeds in the process.

Additionally, Leading Edge will also establish dark fibre builds directly into the National Broadband Network’s (NBN) points of interconnect (POI) from each of its regional data centres. These data centres will then provide network hub points across these areas.

“At present, every digital transaction that happens in regional Australia must go back and forth to the data centres all located in the major Metro cities on the backhaul networks,” said Chris Thorpe, CEO of Leading Edge. “This creates a bottleneck scenario, slowing things down, and compromising the digital experience for regional Australians.”

With NBN facilities access, Thorpe claimed that backhaul will be reduced.

With the added connectivity for regional locations, Thorpe said that this could pave the way for future internet of things (IoT) deployment.

“IoT is driving change in industries such as healthcare, agriculture, construction, logistics, and forestry. But its ubiquity in regional areas has been limited by unreliable broadband connection, which can interrupt data exchange and collection,” he said.

“By opening up connectivity in regional locations, the alliance could make wider spread IoT usage a viable reality, with significant benefits to these industries and the broader economy.”

Regional connectivity has been a focus for Leading Edge since at least May last year, when it announced a rollout of Tier III edge data centres in regional areas. Of this rollout, its Newcastle data centre is expected to open in February 2021.

Then in December, it inked a deal with networking vendor Cisco to provide the infrastructure for the rollout.

Photo by Hunter Harritt on Unsplash