Nats awards £32m contract to BT for new communications network

The National Air Traffic Services (Nats) has awarded a nine-year £32m contract to BT for a major new communications system, as part of its decade-long £1bn investment programme.

The system will carry all communications between Nats' radar, communications and air traffic control centres, including voice calls, ground to air communications, radar, flight and meteorological information, and flight plans.

The upgrade to the company's communications network is a major component of its investment programme, which will refresh and modernise every aspect of the air traffic controller's technology, with the aim of increasing its flight handling capacity from 2.1m flights in 2003 to 3m flights by 2012.

Code-named DaVinci (data and voice integrated Nats communications infrastructure), the system is expected to achieve a return on investment within its nine-year life span and deliver 'considerable' savings.

'DaVinci gives us a virtual private network with the safety and security levels we need, at a much lower cost than our current network,' said Nats' general manager for technology and programmes Paul Thomas.

'It is crucial to our new architecture which will provide a "ring main" delivering information wherever it is needed around the network, in line with our strategic commitment to meet the long term demand for air traffic services.'