• Mayor Steve Rotheram’s full-fibre network transforming business and school access to ultrafast gigabit-capable broadband
• 10 gigabit connection of Baltic Creative now servicing 100+ creative and digital businesses
• 214km network now 95% complete and set to be finished by late 2023
• More than 350 businesses across the Liverpool City Region are now connected to the city region’s part-publicly-owned ultrafast gigabit-capable full-fibre network
• LCR Connect enabled broadcast of Eurovision to the world

More than 350 local businesses are now benefitting from Mayor Steve Rotheram’s flagship LCR Connect project.

Mayor Steve Rotheram

The 214km gigabit-capable network is 95% complete and is already making a huge difference to local businesses, such as the M&S Bank Arena, where the network played a key role in delivering the Eurovision Song Contest.

LCR Connect provided Eurovision organisers with specialised circuits in the venue, ensuring the event was broadcast to the largest global audience in the contest’s history and providing connectivity to the world’s media, audience members, and visitors in the city.

The network provided a range of routes from the Arena to independent locations in London, where internet traffic was handed to the BBC and the European Broadcasting Union, allowing the show to be beamed around the world.  The network also provided cyber security to protect the event from potential distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks.

Now a 10-gigabit connection for Baltic Creative is providing ultrafast broadband for more than 100 companies based at the Liverpool hub for digital and creatives.

LCR Connect is a key element to achieving Mayor Rotheram’s ambition to make the Liverpool City Region the most digitally connected region in the country.

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:

“The hallmark of any modern, 21^st century city region like ours is how it connects people with opportunity. In an increasingly digital world, LCR Connect is making sure that our businesses can keep pace with the fastest internet speeds in the country. It’s helping to attract new jobs and investment into the region and, best of all, it’s half owned by us.

“Our infrastructure has already been put to the test with massive cultural events like Eurovision – but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Once complete, LCR Connect will eventually link to our universities, to our hospitals, to our public spaces, and to residential homes across the city region helping to deliver better public services too. We’re well on our way to becoming the most digitally inclusive region in the country – and creating a better-connected future for our 1.6m residents.”

The network supports Mayor Rotheram’s target to invest 5% of regional GVA on Research and Development (R&D) by 2030 – nearly double the government’s national target.  It will underpin economic growth, innovation, inward investment, and job creation with experts estimating that, with 100% full fibre coverage across the city region, LCR Connect could deliver an economic boost worth up to £1bn, creating thousands of local job and training opportunities.

Councillor Paul Stuart, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Portfolio Holder for Digital and Innovation, said:

“As LCR Connect nears completion it is brilliant to see so many businesses and schools already benefitting from connection to the 95% of the network that is already up and running.  I’m confident that as work is completed and as word gets around about the benefits of this amazing utility, which we own 50% of, we’ll see more and more businesses and educational establishments signing up to take advantage.”

LCR Connect is a joint venture between the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, led by Mayor Steve Rotheram, which owns 50% of the venture, alongside ITS Technology Group, and NGE, who are delivering the full fibre network that is being built across the six local authority areas of the Liverpool City Region.

The network is designed to significantly improve connectivity for businesses and will support internet access for schools and other organisations, making the city region among the best-connected areas of the UK.

The connection to Baltic Creative was made through FACTCO, a Liverpool City Region-based internet service provider, who are a reseller for LCR Connect.

Fran Garforth, Operations Officer, Baltic Creative, said:

“We are excited to upgrade our broadband across our Baltic Creative campus. We have over 100 tenants and a diverse mix of companies within the creative and digital sector.  We were reaching capacity with our previous 1Gb supply and recognised we needed to support our occupiers’ increasing demand for bandwidth.

“Businesses need reliable and scalable digital connectivity and as a flexible workspace provider, we want to offer the best to our tenants. It will help us serve our occupiers well, providing the stability and future proofing they need and help us attract more bandwidth-heavy users.

“A big thank you to FACTCO who always do a fantastic job. We appreciate having a service provider who is based just a mile away and always on hand when we need them, as well as a network which is majority locally owned. A win-win for keeping our spend in the city region, without deviating from the best quality connectivity.”