Fibrus wins international award for acceleration of broadband rollout

Esri Ireland, the market leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), has announced that broadband provider Fibrus has won a Special Achievement in GIS Award (SAG) at Esri’s annual User Conference in San Diego.

Fibrus was recognised for its application of Esri’s ArcGIS technology to accelerate the delivery of next-generation fibre broadband to homes and businesses across Northern Ireland and Cumbria. The technology was implemented across its government backed infrastructure rollouts, including the recently completed Project Stratum in Northern Ireland and Project Gigabit in Cumbria

Esri’s User Conference is the world’s largest GIS conference, with over 18,000 attendees. The prestigious SAG Awards celebrate organisations worldwide who have gone above and beyond in their innovative applications of Esri’s technology. Using this technology, Fibrus has created streamlined and collaborative processes that have resulted in cost savings of up to €5.8 million on the rollout of fibre networks. It was selected from over 700,000 eligible customers globally.

The company needed to establish more efficient and integrated digital processes for collecting, viewing, and sharing information. Esri’s digital mapping technology is enabling it to control costs, scale up rapidly, achieve ambitious project milestones, and streamline processes throughout the entire lifecycle of planning, building, and maintaining the fibre networks. Real-time access to data via dedicated dashboards, wherever employees are working, is improving data accuracy and productivity for the business.

To date, Fibrus has laid more than 25,000 kilometres of fibre, reaching over 440,000 homes across Northern Ireland and Cumbria, with plans for further expansion. The Esri solution is saving 500 hours per week across Fibrus, its contractors and subcontractors, due to the automation of previously manual processes.

The ArcGIS-based processes initially developed for Project Stratum have subsequently been deployed across all of Fibrus’ other public sector and commercial projects.

Philip McLaughlin, Client Manager, Esri Ireland, said: “We are delighted to present Fibrus with this award, in recognition of its innovative application of Esri’s technology. Fibrus is transforming digital infrastructure across Northern Ireland and Cumbria and its incredible work to date is a compelling example of the power of ArcGIS. This award is a testament to the dedication and determination of their entire team.”

Riain Garcia, Senior Manager, GIS at Fibrus, said: “We are immensely proud to receive this prestigious award. From the outset, we recognised that the scale of Project Stratum demanded innovative digital solutions. With Esri’s technology, we were able to scale effectively, drive innovation, and surpass our targets. Looking ahead, we are excited to continue advancing our digital mapping capabilities across a wide range of projects and industries.”

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