photo: Antbex74/CC BY-SA 4.0

Suppliers are being sought for a £250m framework to provide wide area network services to local authorities across the East Midlands – and the rest of the UK.

Nottinghamshire County Council has issued a contract notice outlining its intent to set up a four-year deal worth as much as an estimated £250m. The deal – which will be signed with a single supplier – will cover a range of on-premises and cloud connectivity services.

In addition to allowing authorities to procure existing commodity products, the framework will also seek to enable the future deployment of next-generation technologies.

Related content

• London NHS trusts launch £3bn mega-framework for IT and services
• Will Brexit slow down public sector digital transformation?
• Belfast seeks £250k digital transformation partner

The agreement will enable councils across the East Midlands to buy connectivity products and services. The deal will also be open to local-government organisations throughout the rest of the country.

“Nottinghamshire County Council is seeking to establish a single provider framework for the provision of wide area networks enabling site-to-site and site-to-internet/cloud connectivity”, the contract notice said. “The framework will be for use by Nottinghamshire County Council and other UK-wide contracting authorities.”

It added: ““The framework is established for managed service of core network connectivity services supported by catalogue pricing that encourages innovation and progressive technologies to be adopted during the term of call-off contracts.”

Bids for the contract are open until 29 July, with a four-year contract due to commence on 30 September.