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| O2 AIRWAVE APPOINTS CABLE & WIRELESS FOR BANDWIDTH PROVISION |
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Fixed line bandwidth and disaster recovery services support Airwave’s future growth
Cable & Wireless, a leading supplier of communications services to UK businesses, today (2 June 2004) announced that it has been awarded a five-year contract by O2 Airwave, the emergency services communications network owned by mmO2 plc, for provision of the Core Transmission Network of its Ground Based Network (GBN).
Cable & Wireless is providing a reliable, secure backbone for the service, which carries encrypted communications between Airwave switches and emergency service control rooms. The contract was awarded to Cable & Wireless after a competitive procurement process.
Peter Richardson, Managing Director of O2 Airwave, said, "We are pleased to announce Cable & Wireless as the Core Transmission GBN supplier. The contract reflects the need to provide a high quality, resilient service, which represents value for money. We have taken this opportunity to review our contractual requirements, and believe that our partnership with Cable & Wireless will support our commitment to our customers."
Andrew Sangster, managing director, Carrier Services, Cable & Wireless, commented, "Carrying emergency service communications is a great responsibility of which we at Cable & Wireless have many years’ experience. We are confident that the dependability of our network and the skill of our engineers will meet the challenges posed by the predicted growth of the Airwave service."
Airwave is currently being used by some 50,000 police officers, a figure set to double in the next 12 months as the new national police communications system in England, Scotland and Wales builds towards completion in mid-2005. The company has been short-listed for national contracts with the fire and ambulance services. If successful, this will, for the first time ever, enable a truly joined-up emergency response.
Cable & Wireless already provides resilient fixed line services to the emergency services across the UK, and has a proven track record in serving ambulance, fire and police services. In addition Cable & Wireless holds the Police National Network contract (PNN2) for England, Wales and Scotland, and already provides flexible and secure access to secure applications, including the Police National Computer, over the Cable & Wireless Criminal Justice Extranet.
Cable & Wireless is providing O2 Airwave with a robust fixed line backbone. This highly resilient core network supports life saving communications to more than 100 police control rooms across the UK and, in the unlikely event of one switch failing, the mesh allows all circuits to be re-routed within minutes. Cable & Wireless provides stringent service level agreements on its bandwidth solution, which consists of a mesh of STM-4 (622Mb) cables connecting seven core switch sites, the network management centre and a separate disaster recovery site.
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Notes to Editors:
What is Airwave?
O2 Airwave, part of mmO2 plc, is a sophisticated communications system for the emergency and other public safety ('blue light') services.
It will help make Britain safer by facilitating more effective and efficient policing and it offers the opportunity for more 'joined up' public safety services.
The service is being provided to all police forces throughout England, Scotland and Wales as part of a £2.9bn UK Government contract. Rollout to the police is due for completion at the end of 2005.
O2 Airwave is currently bidding for national contracts with the fire and ambulance services.
Use of Airwave to Date
Airwave has now been delivered to 35 of the 51 police forces (Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Leicestershire, Suffolk, West Mercia, Cambridgeshire, Humberside, Derbyshire, Northumbria, Avon & Somerset, Bedfordshire, Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire, Durham, Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Hampshire, Thames Valley, South Wales, Dorset, South Yorkshire, Cleveland, Merseyside, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Wiltshire, Metropolitan, City of London, Gwent, Essex, Cheshire, West Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, West Midlands.)
It has the ability to provide integrated communications to all emergency services.
The delivery of the Airwave network to a force is followed by several months of force activity as they prepare to give up their old systems and move to the new service.
Use of the system by the British Transport Police follows hard on the heels of Airwave's availability within a particular county.
O2 Airwave is also being used within Lancashire and Shropshire Fire and Rescue Services, as well as Hereford & Worcester Ambulance Trust.
About Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless is one of the world’s leading international communications companies. It provides voice, data and IP (Internet Protocol) services to business and residential customers, as well as services to other telecoms carriers, mobile operators and providers of content, applications and internet services.
Cable & Wireless’ principal operations are in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, Japan, the Caribbean, Panama, the Middle East and Macau.
For more information about Cable & Wireless, go to www.cw.com.
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