Virgin Media Business to enhance DVLA communications in £6.7m deal

Virgin Media Business is to provide the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) with a telephony network in a deal worth £6.7m over three years.

The phone lines are supported by a call management system hosted on the Virgin Media Business network, which aims to handle 20 million DVLA customer calls a year.

The network will allow the DVLA to control and manage call routing in real time by directing incoming calls made to DVLA's non-geographic numbers beginning with '08' and '03'.

This will allow easier implementation of any additional call-handling requirements and will allow the DVLA to monitor the way in which calls are being handled.

Other public bodies will be able to share the DVLA network as it will be on Virgin Media's Public Services Network (PSN).

Virgin is one of only two companies to be fully accredited as a PSN and Chris Powlson, DVLA's telecoms category manager, said this is one reason why the DVLA selected it above some of the main telecoms companies that competed for the contract.

"Virgin was chosen because of its value for money and PSN accreditation – this move marks the beginning of DVLA's path to PSN and unified communications," said Powlson.

The contract was awarded in June 2011 and the DVLA will take on Virgin Media Business's services at the end of the year.