£1 million Wi-Fi upgrade for Manchester city building

It has been announced that a 1Gbps wireless broadband network is to be fitted in a Grade II listed building in the Northern Quarter of the city of Manchester.

Following a fire two years ago that caused water and smoke damage the Grade II listed building that is located in Manchester’s Northern Quarter is set to become the first building in the city to get a Wi-Fi broadband network offering connection speeds of up to 1Gbps thanks to a facelift that is set to cost around £1 million.

The work that is to be carried out on 24 Lever Street is hoped to appeal to the design and media companies which are looking to trade from the city’s creative and digital hub, and are also looking to send or receive large amounts of data, according to the owner Stevenson Estates.

The technological part of the refurbishment of the building is to be managed by Network M, the Cheadle Hulme based telecoms provider on behalf of the Manchester Science Park-based broadband network provider.

The installation of new equipment to allow for a higher capacity is usually needed by companies that are looking to increase their broadband bandwidth said Mike Donovan, the managing director of Network M. In order to avoid these potentially high costs for tenants looking to send large files, 24 Lever Street will provide users with a temporary increase to the bandwidth, and anyone requiring a more permanent increase to their bandwidth can also get this almost straight away.

Big data files can be transferred simply and easily using the connection running at 1Gbps, which is as much as 250 times faster than the average connection speed of 4.1Mbps that can normally be found in normal homes.

“The investment we’ve made in network connectivity means 24 Lever Street is tapped into the UK’s most advanced internet service capability. Media companies that depend on reliable connectivity to upload massive data files simply can’t get a better service,” said Donovan.

Source – Crains Manchester Business