Northumbria Police has appointed MLL Telecom to provide a next generation software defined wide area network (SD-WAN).
It will replace the existing network WAN currently used by around 5,300 police officers and staff for providing connectivity to critical services, the internet, the Public Services Network, Airwave and branch offices.
According to the contract notice the deal is valued at £2.34 million and will run until April 2028, but a company spokesperson said it will amount to £3.58 million over the first three years with the option to extend for four years.
The contract award follows Northumbria Police having conducted a review of its future network strategy and the issuing of a request for proposal via the Crown Commercial Service Network Services 2 Framework (RM3808). Key evaluation criteria included the ability to propose and deliver a cost-effective, reliable and flexible network solution, offering high capacity and high resilience alongside secure connectivity.
Migration plans
MLL will commence work early this year with the migration of the force’s existing data centres, critical HQ and office sites to the new network and the implementation of a central firewall security solution.
The migration includes 75 sites with primary circuits (10G, 1000M, 100M, FTTP and SoGEA) and 75 secondary circuits (RO2 10G and 1000M and 100M, FTTP and SoGEA). The delivery of the new network will involve MLL working closely with various connectivity carriers including Vodafone.
Michael Mcgill, head of procurement at Northumbria Police, said: “MLL Telecom provided a very strong proposal and we are confident that they will meet all our requirements. We are looking forward to working with them on this contract.”
