4 July 2002 -- Brussels-based EuroFiber - a provider of fibre metropolitan area networks in the Benelux countries - has a contract which will run through 2015 to supply fibre networks in the Randstad region to Utrecht-based SURFnet, the Dutch computer network for higher education and research (to which 150 higher education and research institutions are connected). SURFnet will use EuroFiber's networks for high-speed connections in Rotterdam, Delft, Leiden and Lisse.
The fibre supplied by EuroFiber is used for a city ring in Rotterdam, to which SURFnet will connect the Ichthus Hogeschool's Delft site. The Ichthus Hogeschool and the Nederlands Normalisatie Instituut (Dutch Normalisation Institute) are to be connected on the cascade between Delft and Rotterdam. A cascade will be provided between Leiden and Amsterdam, to which the Ichthus Hogeschool's Oegstgeest site will be connected (as well as the scientific publisher Swets & Zeitlinger in Lisse).
"SURFnet intends to connect all its customers at gigabit level," says SURFnet managing director Boudewijn Nederkoorn. "The last-mile hop of the SURFnet network to the customer is often a problem. The fibre-optic rings supplied by EuroFiber provide a solution for five more customers and is a further step towards the full migration to fibre optics of the SURFnet network."
EuroFiber's Lars Alkema says, "With the current developments in the telecom market it is important for a company to use its own fibre-optic network. In the case of SURFnet this means that an unlimited amount of bandwidth will be available to them, with the added bonus that all network upgrades are free of charge."
EuroFiber says that 500 major enterprises are on average no more than 50m away from its 600km network in the Randstad.