Cable&Wireless
Worldwide
Reduces
Co2
With
Earth/Satellite
Location
Centre
Closure
28
July
2010
As
part
of
its
ongoing
pledge
to
significantly
reduce
its
carbon
emissions
by
80
percent
by
2050
Cable&Wireless
Worldwide
has
successfully
closed
Thameside,
its
earth/satellite
location
centre
in
London.
Originally
the
Docklands
Telecommunications
Centre,
Thameside
was
a
collection
of
huge
satellite
dishes
in
the
midst
of
the
city.
The
closure,
and
subsequent
relocations,
of
the
site
will
equate
to
an
85
percent
drop
in
carbon
emissions
for
the
activities
fulfilled
by
the
site.
This
is a
significant
saving
for
C&W
Worldwide
and
amounts
to a
1.48
percent
reduction
of
the
company’s
total
carbon
emissions,
the
equivalent
of
taking
approximately
almost
1000
cars
off
the
road.
As a
global
network
node
and
co-location
centre
Thameside
provided
global
Internet
Protocol
(IP)
backbone
access
of
up
to
10
gigabytes
per
second
(GB/s),
for
roughly
40,000
100
Mbs
Ethernet
services.
It
also
supplied
direct
access
to
all
United
Kingdom
national
and
international
cable
heads,
connecting
tens
of
thousands
of
IP
data
and
voice
users
around
the
world
via
cable
networks
to
Europe,
Asia,
Africa,
Australia
and
the
Americas.
The
closure
and
upgrade
of
Thameside’s
25
year
old
legacy
facilities
and
equipment,
consisting
of
transmission
and
switching
architecture,
means
that
Cable&Wireless
Worldwide
will
save
four
times
the
amount
of
space,
reducing
more
than
850m2
to
approximately
200m2,
and,
by
embracing
new
technologies,
will
be
much
more
efficient.
The
relocation
of
tens
of
thousands
of
users’
network
connectivity,
was
an
immense
project
that
has
taken
just
over
two
years
to
complete.
A
team
of
more
than
a
hundred
people
were
a
part
of
the
24
hour-a-day,
two-year
long
operation
to
close
Thameside,
migrating
all
services
and
closing
all
voice,
IP
and
data,
hosting;
and
access
platforms
located
in
the
site.
All
electronic
equipment
was
disposed
of
according
to
WEEE
regulations
and,
wherever
possible,
the
equipment
removed
from
the
site
was
repurposed
in
other
locations
or
recycled.
The
various
services
provided
by
Thameside
have
been
successfully
dispersed
to
other
C&W
Worldwide
locations
with
the
satellite
capability
moved
to
Whitehill
Earth
Station
in
Oxfordshire
and
a
new
ecologically
friendly
network
site,
built
with
low-carbon
efficiency
in
mind,
even
boasting
a
living
roof
that
provides
insulation,
attracts
local
wildlife,
creates
an
appealing
façade
for
the
surroundings
and
helps
C&W
Worldwide
realise
even
more
carbon
savings.
Phil
Male,
Chief
Strategy
Officer
at
Cable&Wireless
Worldwide,
comments;
“The
closing
of
Thameside
is a
significant
step
in
helping
us
reach
our
environmental
targets
and,
by
embracing
sustainable
development,
we
can
help
ourselves
and
our
customers
employ
more
efficient
and
energy
conserving
ways
of
working.
The
team
has
accomplished
a
lot
with
this
project
and
in
many
ways
it
sets
the
benchmark
for
future
initiatives
as
we
continue
to
improve
our
environmental
performance.
An
85
percent
reduction
in
CO2
for
all
the
activities
of a
single
site,
the
equivalent
of
taking
almost
1000
cars
off
the
road,
demonstrates
what
we
and
other
businesses
can
achieve.”
