Broadband aggregation takes first steps

The government's broadband aggregation scheme will have to be operational by the end of the year if it is to include the purchase of the high-bandwidth N3 network for the NHS.

The Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI's) Broadband Taskforce was launched last November. Its purpose is to take forward the government's strategy to use the combined telecoms demand across the public sector, to help persuade suppliers to invest in expensive infrastructure.

The group's Broadband Aggregation Project, supported by e-commerce minister Stephen Timms, started in March. It examines the organisations that need to be created, both locally and nationally, to make the scheme a reality.

The project has two aims, according to its director Peter Craine. "One is to develop the availability agenda and the other is to deliver best value for money for public sector customers," he explained.

The team is in discussion with possible users, including the NHS, the education sector and parts of the Home Office, as well as groups that purchase on a regional basis, such as emergency services and local government.

"It's about a dialogue with potential customers about what they want and how they want to obtain it," said Craine.

But the pressure is on. The advert has already been placed for the high-speed replacement for the health service's NHSNet, and the contract winner will be buying the connectivity early next year.

"The time scale is tight and we have to make quick progress," warned Craine. "If we are to meet the requirements of the NHS for N3, we need to have our organisations operational by the turn of the year.

"We will have to proceed with the project at a fairly brisk pace if we are to do that."

Education and local government will be the other main parts of the scheme. The education sector is looking at the current arrangements, using regional broadband consortia to do their buying.

Ultimately, that procurement function will have to pass through the organisations being set up by the Broadband Aggregation Project if aggregation is to work.

Local government is a disparate customer and is already aggregating demand in some areas, according to Craine.

"We are in dialogue with councils and representative organisations about how we can obtain better value for money by using the mechanisms we are designing," he said.

The main challenge facing the plan is its complexity. "This is not a complicated project in IT terms and it's not an expensive project, but it is complicated in that there are so many stakeholders," explained Craine.

"The organisation, ensuring that all the stakeholders are brought in and have their interests reflected, is a challenge."

NHS
The broadband N3 network will be crucial to the delivery of the £2.3bn National Programme for NHS IT.

NHSNet currently links the majority of the UK's hospitals and GPs. The upgraded network will be one of the four main elements of the government's strategy, alongside an integrated care records system and electronic bookings and prescriptions.

N3 will not just be a replacement for the existing network, maintained Kevin Caldwell, director for programme assurance and infrastructure at the National Programme for IT.

"We are also looking to provide mobile and remote network access, not just fixed links into buildings. Most critically it will underpin new applications and support new ways of working," he said.

"N3 underpins the National Programme and the full ambition could not be realised on the existing network."

The extra bandwidth will also support new technologies such as videoconferencing, stated Caldwell.

One pilot scheme already in place uses video links between a local health centre and consultants, so that patients are spared the travel and potential trauma of a hospital visit. N3 will also support the electronic transfer of X-rays.

"It's only suitable for certain situations, but it's an example of using the network to do something helpful for the patient and to the process of diagnosis and treatment," explained Caldwell.

"It's a long way from sending emails and Word attachments. This is carrying a lot of sophisticated high-density information."

The advert for the N3 contract was placed at the end of May, and by the end of this month the procurement team will produce a list of between four and 10 suppliers.

By the end of the summer it will be reduced to a shortlist of three, with a view to signing the seven- to 10-year contract by April 2004.

The NHSNet network is worth about £100m a year. N3 will be a very high-value contract, but Caldwell warned that it is hard to put an exact price on it at this stage.

"The running rate will be affected by a series of factors: our ability to manage the network integrator; its ability to manage the supply chain; and the consistently falling price of telecoms, set against our demand for a lot more capacity," he said.

Education
Alongside the NHS, the other major public sector broadband customers are the UK's primary and secondary schools.

Broadband connectivity in schools currently stands at around 32 per cent, and is expected to rise to 40 per cent by September.

The vision is for all schools to have 2Mbps links by 2006, with secondary schools upgraded to 8Mbps as soon as possible. Last November, the prime minister committed the government to funding the programme.

The main challenges are managing costs, and ensuring a level playing field for all schools regardless of geography or location, according to Mel Philipson, chairman of the National Regional Broadband Consortium (RBC) group and manager of the Northern Grid for Learning.

Making best use of the resource is another issue. "We need to engage schools to maximise the connections and infrastructure to develop new paradigms of teaching and learning," said Philipson.

A degree of demand aggregation is already in place in the sector. Ten RBCs represent groups of local education authorities for the purpose of buying bandwidth for the area's schools.

The DTI's public sector demand aggregation initiative will give RBCs, local education authorities and schools greater opportunity to compare existing prices and, where possible, drive down costs for connectivity and services, according to Philipson.

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "We are committed to providing broadband to all schools by 2006.

"However, we must ensure that we get best possible value for money, so we are in discussion with the DTI and other parties to see how the aggregation project may support us to deliver the best service to our schools, now and in the future."