Analogue Line and Broadband Services - Contract Procurement
REPORT TO; Assistant Director - Technology, Madeline Hoskin
DECISION DATE: 26th January 2024
PROPOSED RECOMMENDATION
To undertake a procurement exercise for the replacement of the analogue lines and broadband services which form part of the Openreach WLR product set which goes end of life December 2025 and to direct award the contract for a period of 3 years plus 1 year extension via the YPO 000976 Network Connectivity and Telecommunication Solutions framework Lot 6
BACKGROUND TO SUPPORT THE RECOMMENDATION
The council currently has several suppliers who provide analogue lines and broadband services. These lines and services are used for a variety of purposes which include alarms, lifts, emergency phones, traffic signals, standalone Internet access etc. Some of these existing contracts have already expired.
We have approximately:
• 700 analogue lines
• 140 analogue lines with broadband service
• 24 ISDN 2 channels
• 50 ISDN 30 channels
Openreach provide the underlying infrastructure that these products rely upon and have announced that they will cease to operate after December 2025.
A national “stop-sell” has already been announced for the WLR product set and it is no longer possible to procure these legacy products unless the replacement product is not currently available in that exchange area. The services impacted are analogue lines, broadband services, ISDN2 and ISDN30.
A new generation of products (SoGEA and FTTP) are taking their place.
This procurement exercise and contract award is intended to provide a new contract for the supply of the new generation of SoGEA and FTTP products allowing us to migrate to this product set ahead of the December 2025 shutdown and provide a means of procuring new services following the “stop sell” announcement.
In parallel with the contract award, we will be undertaking an audit of our current services and we expect that a proportion will either be ceased prior to migration or will be migrated to an alternative solution (for example GSM for alarm and lift lines) or incorporated as part of existing wide area network services.
There may be opportunities to migrate some broadband services to existing contract arrangements where they provide the most cost-effective solution.
We expect that the majority of current ISDN 2 and ISDN 30 services will be migrated to the Council’s existing SIP provision which does not form part of this procurement.
Given the volume of services we have it is essential that we start this migration work now otherwise we will risk being in a position where we have services that cease to function after December 2025. Additionally, without a contract in place we will find it difficult to procure services as new requirements come through from the business.
In terms of budget, we envisage that the new provision will operate within the current budget allocation for these services across the former districts and county councils and that the current budget allocation will be consolidated in to one central budget.
The estimated cost for the new contract is £325,000 excl VAT per annum which is in line with current budgets.
The new Analogue Lines and Broadband services contract will commence from the 1st March 2024
LEGAL AND GOVERNANCE COMPLIANCE
The procurement exercise will be undertaken by the Council’s Procurement and Contract Management Service, with a Gateway report considered in accordance with the Council’s Procurement and Contract Procedure Rules
This is a key decision. The Analogue Line Replacement contract procurement was entered on the forward plan on 20th December 2023.
RECOMMENDATION
To award the contract for the replacement of analogue lines (and other associated services and products which are part of the Openreach WLR product set which go end of life December 2025) via direct award through YPO 000976 Network Connectivity and Telecommunication Solutions framework Lot 6 for a period of 3 years plus 1 year extension.
Officer name – Andrew Lambert
Date – 17th January 2024