UK WAN contracts totalling £123m due to expire within 12 months

New figures seen by Computing show large number of telecommunications contracts will be up for grabs shortly, with a total value of £123m

The UK will see 229 wide area network (WAN) contracts expire between October 2016 and October 2017. These contracts represent an average annual spend of £123m in total.

According to new figures from the Cross Sector Procurement Gateway, a public sector spending information resource from vendor ProcureTools, the top region for WAN contracts in the UK is Greater London.

The area was responsible for 45 contracts with an average annual spend of over £37m. The top supplier in the area is Fujitsu, with three contracts with an annual average spend of over £25m set to expire.

Local government is the largest WAN customer, responsible for 84 contracts with an annual average spend of over £22m.

Vodafone is the most common supplier overall in WAN contracts expiring over the next 12 months, with 19 contracts set to end, with an average annual spend of over £38m.

The large number of contracts shortly up for renewal together with their high financial value could mean a bonanza for telecommunications suppliers. However with the UK's economy teetering as the markets speculate on the nature of the country's exit from Europe, some firms may choose to scale down their infrastructure spend until the future is more certain.

However, one sector still very much growing globally is security.

Global spending on security hardware, software and services will rise by 38 per cent to total $101.6bn by 2020, according to analyst group IDC. That compares with estimated spending of $73.7bn this year. Banking and finance will lead the spending spree, accounting for $8.6bn in investments on security products and services, followed by discrete manufacturing, the public sector and process manufacturing.