£30m Glasgow City Council contract to connect public buildings awarded to Scottish SME

Glasgow City Chambers - Image credit: Viv Lynch via Flickr

A major public sector contract to deliver wide area network infrastructure in Glasgow has been awarded to a Scottish telecoms network provider.

Edinburgh-based SME Commsworld has signed a £30m deal to deliver services to Glasgow City Council within the local authority's wider seven-year ICT contract.

The firm – Scotland’s largest independent telecoms company – will deliver an enhanced wide area network of ultrafast, pure-fibre connectivity to the city’s schools, libraries and other council buildings.  

With substantially upgraded fibre infrastructure connecting all council sites, bandwidth speeds are expected to be 100 times the UK average, while improvements to resilience should minimise downtime, according to the company.

Commsworld will also rollout an IP telephony solution – internet-based phones – for more than 16,000 council users, as well as a 180 seat contact centre.

Glasgow City Council’s digital champion, Councillor Angus Millar, said: “Glasgow’s rapid development as a digital, connected city gives us the chance to completely rethink how we use technology to improve lives and communities.

“From world-class digital learning in our schools, to better connected businesses, access to top-quality infrastructure will transform Glasgow into one of the best-connected cities anywhere in Europe.

“Having one of Scotland’s big tech SME success stories at the very heart of that transformation is testament to their innovation and will help deliver huge benefits to the whole city.”

Ricky Nicol, chief executive of Commsworld, said: “This contract has effectively given the green light for Glasgow to become a truly digital city capable of attracting the most exciting businesses in the world.

“It’s vital that our Scottish cities and their people are at the cutting edge of technology – so it is fantastic that so many will now benefit thanks to this council’s ambition and foresight.”

Glasgow City Council signed a seven-year deal in November with CGI to deliver IT and business services, which promised improvements to infrastructure and a greater opportunity for SMEs to bid for contracts.

The overarching ICT contract is the largest public sector contract agreed in UK in the past year and Commsworld’s £30m deal is the biggest in its 23 year history.

The firm was founded in 1994 and has offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

More than half of its 81-strong team are based in Glasgow, with that number set to rise in the coming years.

The posted £13.2m in revenues to December 2016 and has said it is likely to record a 17 per cent growth on that in its most recent figures, which will be announced in the coming weeks.