Logicalis wins public broadband contract

Slough-based Logicalis has been awarded a £74m, seven-year contract to build and operate a countrywide public sector broadband network on behalf of the Welsh Assembly.

This represents the single largest commercial contract ever awarded to Logicalis. The new Public Sector Broadband Aggregation (PSBA) network aims to consolidate broadband communications across public organisations such as schools, libraries and hospitals, and improve the services available to them.

PSBA is designed to support an expected 5,500 public sites across Wales. The network will be publicly launched in December 2007 with migration of users from existing networks taking place throughout 2008.

Jens Montanana, chief executive of Logicalis’ parent group Datatec, said: ‘We are delighted to help the Welsh Assembly Government with the implementation of this flagship project, the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. This is a very substantial contract, in fact our largest ever, the value of which is expected to grow significantly over the next few years, we also expect to announce a number of other key customer contract wins imminently that will help drive the profitability of the business forward strongly.’