West Sussex Gigabit - AWARD

West Sussex County Council currently runs IT services over a Wide Area Network that is subject to an outsourcing contract,, currently provided by Capita Business Services Limited. There is a strategic plan to improve both the value and flexibility of this arrangement through the procurement of infrastructure across the county.

This infrastructure will consist of ducting and fibre optic cables connecting key locations across the county that can then be made available to West Sussex County Council and its delivery partners as a service, when and where required. Either the County Council or its Service Provider will install additional Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) to incorporate this additional capacity into the managed Wide Area Network.

Other public sector bodies have expressed an interest in accessing this infrastructure, when available and also potentially extending its reach to better meet their needs. In the first instance this means the inclusion of some District and Borough sites into the initial requirements described in this procurement.

It has also led to the intention to establish a Framework Agreement that can be accessed by other public sector agencies within the County and also potentially extended to cover the Requirements of Brighton and Hove City Council in the future. West Sussex County Council is a first wave exemplar project for the Full Fibre Network Programme (LFFN) operated by the Broadband Development UK (BDUK) programme within the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) and this procurement is part funded by DCMS.

The Framework Authority is acting as a Lead Authority on behalf of a wider group of public sector bodies. The Framework Authority is working in partnership with all six (6) Districts and Borough Councils in West Sussex (Adur and Worthing, Arun, Chichester, Crawley, Horsham and Mid Sussex) and will action the first Call-Off Contract for its own requirements and those of its partners.

The Framework Authority is seeking a sole service provider to provide a catalogue of services on a framework basis for a period of 4 years. These services include design, installation, support and maintenance of dark fibre connectivity circuits to a Contracting Authority's sites on a long-term basis of at least 20 years.