Issue - meetings

RESOLVED that the three-year contract for mobile phone and data services be awarded to EE/BT.

Executive considered a detailed report which sought Members approval to award a three-year contract for mobile phone and data services to EE/BT procured via the NHS London procurement partnership agreement.

The current mobile telephone and data contract had expired. BT had also issued a notice that the 3G network would be switched off in January 2024 and mobiles would likely need replacement before this deadline.

A procurement exercise was completed to secure a three-year mobile data contract with the existing mobile data supplier via the NHS London procurement partnership agreement framework. This was a three-year contract and included all the Council’s devices, including those used by Dragonfly. There would be a recharge to Dragonfly for their relative share of the cost.

Moved by Councillor Clive Moesby and seconded by Councillor Duncan McGregor.

RESOLVED that the three-year contract for mobile phone and data services be

awarded to EE/BT.

Reasons for Recommendation

The procurement was completed using the NHS London Procurement partnership agreement Framework.

EE/BT are the existing supplier which will avoid the need to port existing numbers to another network or to replace the SIM cards / devices or APN.

Alternative Options and Reasons for Rejection

To do nothing will cost the Council more money as currently spend is approximately £54,000 per year or £162,000 over 3 years on the existing mobile contract, this may continue to increase whilst out of contract.

The aggregated data tariff will not increase from 250mb to 1Gb per device, likely resulting in increased cost by exceeding the data allowance.

The Council would need to provide additional funds to replace devices as there

would be no technical fund (£47,975) available on the existing contract.

To invite alternative suppliers to submit bids under the framework, this would:

·       Incur porting (transferring) all 417 existing numbers to the new supplier, with potential disruption to service.

·       May necessitate the replacement of all or some SIM cards and mobile phones, this would be a significant workload.

·       Would not guarantee a better quality of service, signal coverage or cost.

·       Result in increased costs to the Council during the procurement process.

·       The frameworks complete comparisons to provide value for money and competitively priced tariffs from all suppliers.