BT Continues to Dominate Public Sector Telecoms in Wales

The Welsh Government (WG) has confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that they recently extended their multi-million pound Public Sector Broadband Aggregation (PSBA) network contract with BT’s Enterprise division, which has been operational since 2007 and was awarded to the incumbent in 2014 (here).

The PSBA helps to connect over 110 public sector organisations (across more than 5000 public sites), such as hospitals, local government offices, schools and emergency services, to communicate using a managed and secure high-speed Wide Area Network (WAN). Currently, around 560 GP surgeries and more than 1,500 schools are on this fast and resilient network, among others.

Naturally, having a single communications network for the whole of the Welsh public sector can be quite cost-effective. But the digital infrastructure market has evolved considerable over the past few years, and there are those that would have liked to see the WG put the PSBA back to the market (competitive tender).

Sadly, this is now unlikely to change, at least for a few more years. The WG has instead opted to extend their current contract with BT for another 3 years – until October 2024, and it may yet be extended again, which is quite a long period of exclusivity for any single operator to hold.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said:

“The PSBA contract with BT was extended in 2021 by a further three years. Therefore, the current arrangements will continue to 2024. There are a range of options available after 2024 including a further extension to the contract of two years.”

The WG no doubt feels as if BT has done a good enough job, which is fair enough. Indeed, it’s often easier to extend than to consider the alternatives, with all the additional complexity that a multi-operator environment may entail (BT would still have to play a role because they’re present in more areas than their rivals).

Nevertheless, the growing reach of rival networks is steadily opening up the scope for future alternatives, and the WG could thus be doing themselves a disservice by allowing BT to continue its dominance of the market. Over time, more questions may be raised over whether that position still represents the best value for taxpayers’ money.

For example, some of BT’s rivals are already in the process of building 10Gbps “full fibre” past public buildings in Wales, but due to the PSBA they aren’t allowed to offer them a service.