BT clinches £32m five-year deal with nuclear site operator Sellafield
Telecoms giant BT has secured a £32m network services contract with the Sellafield nuclear plant site in Cumbria.
The arrangement will also see £2m invested into community schemes in West Cumbria.
The deal will cover the running and maintaining of the company’s entire network services, as well as upgrades and updates to current equipment.
As part of the five-year contract BT has also agreed to provide £2m of funding for local social value initiatives in the West Cumbria area which will be distributed using the expertise of the Sellafield social impact team to activities that align with its ‘social impact multiplied’ strategy.
Sellafield has a major impact in the region employing around 11,000 people at the West Cumbrian nuclear site and a number of off-site offices in Cumbria and Warrington.
The contract will include wide and local area network services, core and gateway services, as well as audio and conferencing, telephony and cyber security.
Upgrades to the network will also enable Sellafield to take advantage of new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G in the future.
Ashish Gupta, MD corporate and public sector for BT’s Enterprise unit, said: “We are really pleased to have secured this major contract with Sellafield Ltd and look forward to working in partnership with them to create a network that is secure, fast, reliable and future-proofed, with the added capability to overlay new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G and IoT in the future.
“In a major boost for the local area, not only will we deliver digital transformation for Sellafield as part of the contract, but we’ll also provide a significant boost to the local community, too. Over the life of the partnership, we will be investing £2m into West Cumbria to help tackle the causes of inequality among the area’s most vulnerable people.”
Tracey West, social impact manager at Sellafield Ltd, said: “It is really positive to see such a significant commitment from BT as part of this contract to support the delivery of our Social Impact Multiplied programme.”
The BT network will incorporate wi-fi, a unified communications programme to consolidate conferencing solutions such as Teams and Skype, and in-built security to enable the handling and processing of sensitive data.
