A world-class science and technology community: Manchester Science Park is internationally recognised as a groundbreaking centre of excellence. Its reputation as one of the most successful and fastest growing locations of its kind is underpinned by its proven ability to provide the environment, facilities and support to maximise innovation and commercial success.

Manchester Science Park (MSP) started operations in 1984 with Enterprise House, the Park’s first “incubator” premises. Today the Science Park manages buildings on two sites, which accommodate around 80 companies. It is located next to the largest academic and clinical campus in Europe, comprising of The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Business School and the Central Manchester Healthcare Trust.

MSP works to enhance the economic and technological wealth of Manchester, by providing accommodation and added-value services for companies in high technology sectors. Tenants are selected on their potential for growth and innovation, not just their proven track record. Start-up companies benefit from both the credibility of the Manchester Science Park ‘brand’ and flexible tenancy agreements that allow companies to expand within the Science Park property portfolio without financial penalties.

MSP develops, owns and manages the buildings on the Park. These currently provide nearly 20,000 sq m (215,320 sq ft) of laboratory and office space, ranging from units of 10 sq m upwards with design and build plots available. Two buildings on the Park are particularly suited to early stage companies; they are divided into smaller units and offer reasonable rents with flexible tenancy agreements from 6 months to 3 years. Leases on the other buildings range from 3 to 15 years and commercial rents are charged for all accommodation.

As part of its commitment to providing added-value services, in 2004 MSP began to deploy the MyZones Guest Zone service. With this service the business park offers a managed wireless IP Access service to the tenants and an ad hoc IP access service to the visitors of the Business Park. Initially this began as a single site installation in the Greenhey Centre. In 2005 this was expanded into two other buildings, Kilburn House and Rutherford House. Two of the reasons for choosing the MyZones service, was its flexibility and wide-ranging feature set.

The main MyZones node is installed in the MSP Greenheys Centre and connects to the MyZones central platform. Wireless coverage is achieved, by installing standard “dumb” access point equipment that then connects the main node. An optical fibre ring interconnects the buildings across the science park. The MyZones service was able to utilise the fibre ring very effectively. A dedicated VLAN (virtual LAN) was setup for MyZones, covering the entire Science Park. Using the MyZones VLAN and the fibre ring, MSP can now increase the MyZones service footprint, by simply installing standard “dumb” access points into any building across the Science Park estate; basically they just plug them in.

The MyZones service provides excellent coverage across tenant offices and meeting rooms; both business tenants and visitors now enjoy fast, mobile and reliable Internet access across the Manchester Science Park. This Guest Zone Service can be extended with an ad hoc IP access service to the visitors of the Business Park, which can be charged online via credit card payments. Other options include Wireless VoIP Telephone Services, several advertisement opportunities for local shops/restaurants and can be locally branded.