Edinburgh awards wide area network contract

City of Edinburgh Council has awarded a contract to replace copper with fibre cabling on its wide area network.

The seven-year deal would be worth £16m if extended to the full 19 years possible and will be carried out by telecommunications provider Commsworld with network installation firm CityFibre.

The agreement has been signed with supplier CGI, which two weeks ago was appointed in a £186m contract to deliver ICT services for the councils.

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Ricky Nicol, chief executive of Commsworld, said: “This will have a hugely positive impact on Edinburgh with some schools able to boast up to 100 times greater bandwidth than before - this basically means far faster internet and far greater capacity for all pupils and staff.”

The new fibre cable will link up 400 new sites to the WAN, extending it from 50km to 150km – one of the largest in the UK.

The company will also rollout an IP Telephony solution for 7,000 users and a 250 seat contact centre.

Alasdair Rankin, convener of the finance and resources committee, said: “One of the exciting things CGI will do through its chosen partners, including CityFibre and Commsworld, is speed up our move to greater online capability giving residents and businesses greater flexibility to engage with the Council and carry out their transactions digitally.”

The appointment of Commsworld also starts to fulfil the council’s promise to deliver 25 per cent of the CGI contract value to small and medium enterprises.