WIREDGOV

A list of approved broadband suppliers will be selected to help simplify the procurement process as part of rolling out broadband to rural areas.

The Framework Agreement will be aimed at local authorities and Devolved Administrations allowing them to select suppliers from the pre-qualified list through ‘call-off’ contracts, rather than run independent procurement processes from scratch for their own areas.

Once in place, use of the Framework Agreement will provide significant savings in terms of time and costs compared to multiple independent procurement processes for both the public sector and suppliers.

For suppliers this will mean only having to bid once to be selected for the Framework, rather than up to 40 times for individual broadband procurement processes across the UK. A set of draft requirements (PDF 402kb) has been published for suppliers interested in bidding.

The Framework supports the overall Government commitment to delivering the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015, whilst providing everyone in the UK with access to broadband speeds of at least 2Mbps and superfast broadband for 90% of people in each local authority.

Further information

• About the Framework and draft requirements
• Broadband policy
• Broadband provision mapped