The last three of the deal’s planned 13 sections will be awarded when CCS ‘is in a position to do so’

Credit: Jordiet/CC BY-SA 2.0   Image has been cropped

The £5bn Network Services 2 framework has gone live today – but only 10 of the planned 13 lots have so far been awarded.

The contract notice published late last year laid out a 13-lot structure for the deal. Ten of these have been awarded to a cumulative total of 82 suppliers.

Each of the following lots is now open for business with between six and 33 providers: data access; local connectivity; traditional telephony; inbound telephony; mobile voice and data; paging and alerting; videoconferencing; audioconferencing; radio services; security and surveillance.

But three sections are missing from the framework as it stands: IP telephony; unified communications; and contact centres.

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It is not clear why these lots are yet to be awarded, nor when they are likely to be. But CCS indicated that the three sections have not been cut from the framework entirely.

“CCS is pleased to have awarded 10 of the 13 lots and looks forward to concluding the final three lots when in a position to do so,” a spokesperson said.

Network Services 2 will run for three years, with a scheduled end date of 16 August 2022. The deal also allows for an optional one-year extension. The contract notice estimated the lifetime worth of the deal to the chosen suppliers as £5bn. 

Of the 10 lots to have been awarded so far, the data access and local connectivity segments are the most populous, with 33 and 32 suppliers respectively featuring. Traditional telephony, inbound telephony, videoconferencing, and audioconferencing all contain 20 or more firms, while 15 companies made the cut on the mobile voice and data lot.

The sections of the deal dedicated to paging and alerting, radio services, and security and surveillance are more sparsely populated, with each containing only six suppliers.

Public sector organisations can use the framework to award call-off contracts for a range of telecoms and networking services. For some lots, contracts of up to 10 years can be awarded. 

The incoming deal comes into effect a little over two weeks after the expiry of the first incarnation of the Network Services framework. The outgoing deal, which was in place for four years, featured 52 suppliers across its 10 lots. It came with an estimated value of £2bn and allowed the award of call-off contracts of up to five years – plus the addition of two optional one-year extensions.