Latest news with #SA1
Wales Online
02-07-2025
- Sport
- Wales Online
Swansea City closing in on move for Ethan Galbraith after fee agreed
Swansea City closing in on move for Ethan Galbraith after fee agreed The midfielder is believed to be close to agreeing a move to SA1 Ethan Galbraith is close to completing a move to Swansea City (Image: James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images. ) Swansea City are closing in on a move for Leyton Orient midfielder Ethan Galbraith. Sources close to the deal have told WalesOnline that a fee of around £1.6million has been agreed with the League One outfit, and it's believed he's now highly likely to become Swansea's fifth signing of the summer. Swansea insiders have insisted the deal hasn't yet progressed to that point, but it's understood they are hopeful of getting it over the line, and it seems a move is close to fruition. Sign up to our Swansea City newsletter here. Galbraith has been on the radar for some time, and was the subject of a failed £750,000 bid on deadline day, but interest from the Swans had initially cooled this summer. They had even sourced several alternatives, including Israeli star Gabi Kanichowsky. That interest is not expected to be taken in any further in light of this move, with Galbraith understood to be keen on making the move to south Wales. However, their search for midfield reinforcements has led them back to the Northern Irishman, who was also heavily linked with Huddersfield Town and Charlton Athletic this summer. Article continues below It's claimed Galbraith is now expected to sign a four-year deal with the Swans, and should he sign he will follow on from Cameron Burgess, Ricardo Santos, Bobby Wales and Zeidane Inoussa in making the move to SA1 this summer. Melker Widell has also joined up with the Swans squad for the first time since making his move in January, having spent the second half of last season back on loan at AaB. Galbraith was a stand-out star for Orient under Richie Wellens last season, making 42 appearances in League One and scoring six goals, adding seven assists also notched. He's also capable of slotting in at right-back, which may well have added to his appeal with Swans chiefs, who have struck a deal with the O's with Galbraith having one year left on his contract at the BetWright Stadium. The midfielder arrives on the back of some rave reviews throughout his career. While coming through with Manchester United , ex-Northern Ireland manager Ian Baraclough described him as Northern Ireland's very own "Andres Iniesta or Xavi". 'Ethan, over the last six months we've seen a maturity in his play and the way he goes about his work day to day," Baraclough said of the youngster. Sign up to the Swansea City WhatsApp service to get breaking news and top stories sent to your phone. "He's excelled with the under-21s and he's a different type of player to anyone we've got in the senior squad. Not to put too much pressure on his shoulders, but he's our little (Andres) Iniesta or Xavi, someone who can get on the ball and manipulate the ball and find positive passes. "Hopefully it's the start of a long career for him. Hopefully he relishes his time from the start in this squad, rather than coming in from the under-21 squad. Article continues below "He has earned his right with the way he has gone about his play for the last six months."
Business News Wales
24-04-2025
- Business
- Business News Wales
University Sites Connected by Dark Fibre Network
Virgin Media O2 Business has completed building a dark fibre network loop across eight university sites in Swansea, the Swansea Bay City Deal's Digital Infrastructure Programme has announced. Dark fibre networks offer practically limitless capacity and speeds, with the innovative loop configuration ensuring a continuous data flow between educational sites. This will benefit research, teaching and collaboration across the academic landscape. The network, which is only accessible to linked sites, will also provide secure, high-speed, and scalable connectivity, improving the efficiency of internal systems while providing increased capacity to increase to suit the demands of the sector. The network will immediately increase bandwidth to 40Gbps, with the potential for 100Gbps between campuses in the future. This means all Swansea campuses are now connected at exceptionally high speeds that are usually only available at a single campus location, with future proofing for even higher speeds helping create a parity of experience for students across SA1 in both the short and long term. This will enable high-flex teaching, ultra high-quality video streaming and immersive learning environments, while also supporting future research as well as smart campus solutions to enhance efficiency and sustainability. The deployment of this infrastructure means that in the event of network disruption, traffic can be instantly rerouted, maintaining reliable connectivity and ensuring uninterrupted academic activity. James Cale, of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, said: 'This is an exciting phase where we will now start to tangibly see the benefits of a dark fibre network across campuses. The ability to fully exploit technology within a class or research environment offers both academics and students a far wider range of opportunities, whilst making our sites more data secure. This is something that is widely needed to future proof further education in this region.' This project realises the Digital Infrastructure Programme's ambition of ensuring public sector bodies have access to the best possible technological resources. It opens up limitless opportunities for collaboration between institutions and accelerates the pace of technological innovation across public sector services. Cllr Rob Stewart, Leader of Swansea Council and Chair of the Swansea Bay City Deal Joint Committee, said: 'This is a fantastic milestone in the region's plan to adopt emerging technology into our public sector services. Creating more robust ways of collaborating, data sharing and ways of researching is a fundamental aspect of how we build best practices across our education and healthcare sites. This will open up more innovation opportunities in the future.' The new network, which will be fully available by December 2025, will offer significantly improved capacity and speed, and will allow large amounts of data to be securely shared and saved. On completion, the dedicated dark fibre network will connect 36 public sector sites throughout Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, including local authorities, healthcare and education partners.
