BT Group has signed a new £1.29 billion ($1.67bn) contract with the Home Office that will see the carrier provide mobile services for the government’s Emergency Services Network (ESN) over the next seven years.
The contract came into effect yesterday (December 2), and will see BT continue to build, maintain, and develop critical mobile coverage and capabilities for ESN as it rolls out to support more than 300,000 users.
Since 2015, the telco has worked with the Home Office to build the ESN as part of a wider new Emergency Services Mobile Communications Program to replace the old Airwave system, which had been in place for more than two decades.
The ESN provides mobile services to the police, fire, and ambulance services in England, Scotland, and Wales. Airwave had initially been selected to deliver the ESN, before being dumped.
BT's involvement in the ESN, has included the building of a new dedicated core network for ESN as a mission-critical services. This has also included upgrading more than 19,500 of EE’s existing 4G sites ready for ESN and expanding coverage in rural and critical operational areas.
The renewal of the contract comes as the existing agreement was set to expire on 31 December, 2024.
As part of the latest agreement, BT said it will take management responsibility and provide coverage services for the Home Office’s Air-to-Ground (A2G) network, their Extended Area Services (EAS) sites, London Underground, plus specific road and rail tunnels.
"BT Group has been a committed longstanding partner for Britain’s Emergency Services Network (ESN). We’re proud to double down on this commitment today by broadening the scope of our agreement with the Home Office until 2032 and beyond – as the Government takes ESN from build through to delivery and operation of this critical network," said Bas Burger, CEO – Business at BT. “Essential public services like these depend on a rock-solid digital foundation."
Airwave had been selected to deliver the ESN for police, fire, and ambulance services in England, Scotland, and Wales.
Plagued by delays
First proposed in 2015, the ESN was meant to have been in use by 2020, but it has been plagued by delays.
In March of last year, the Home Office revealed it was unsure when the UK government’s 4G-based ESN would be ready after a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) found it could be delayed until 2029 or later. The report revealed that the Home Office paid out £45 million ($56m) to terminate its contract with Motorola Solutions two years early for the delivery of the core voice application for the ESN.
The Home Office has spent £2bn ($2.5bn) on the ESN project so far, while spending a further £2.9bn ($3.6bn) to keep Airwave going.
In 2022, the UK imposed a price cap on how much Motorola Solutions can charge the emergency services to use its Airwave radio network, following an investigation by the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA).
The CMA stated that Motorola held a monopoly in its role as a service provider, and took advantage of this to secure around £160m in excess profits.
Motorola rejected the claims as “unfounded and incorrect calculation” of excess profits, but did agree to end its involvement in the ESN in the same year. Earlier this year, the company filed a lawsuit against the government to recover unpaid bills for its work on the ESN, which has yet to be rolled out.
