Jisc has signed a 10-year extension with Neos Networks to supply the fibre that carries Janet, the UK's national research and education network, as AI and data-heavy research push demand for bandwidth.
Janet connects universities, colleges, schools and research bodies, serving 18 million users, and links them to international research networks. Jisc describes it as a sovereign network, operating under UK law and governance. The new contract extends a long-standing partnership and gives Jisc a decade of certainty over the infrastructure underneath, so it can plan capacity and upgrade the network as technology changes.
Demand is already visible. Janet will carry data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory project in Chile, with an expected 25% of the data generated managed by the UK and sent to participating research sites for analysis. Jisc also points to AI and quantum computing as workloads that will need more capacity over the life of the agreement. The fibre supplied by Neos will also let other users, including public sector and government bodies, draw on Janet's technical and security capabilities.
Bella Abrams, Group CTO at Jisc, called the deal a milestone. "This agreement represents a significant milestone for the Janet Network," she said.
Lee Myall, CEO of Neos Networks, tied the contract to research demand. "Over the next decade, AI, advanced computing and increasingly data-intensive research will drive huge growth in the information institutions need to move quickly and securely between people, facilities and computing resources," he said.
Neos describes its network as the UK's largest business-dedicated network, with more than 600 points of presence and 90 data centres.
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