MLL Telecom will provide managed Public Wi-Fi services for East Sussex County Council’s (ESCC) libraries free of charge for the next three years. This follows a revision to the social value proposal originally submitted by MLL to ESCC as part of a major managed network services tender. The contract was subsequently awarded to MLL in 2021 under the South East Grid procurement network (SEG).
MLL will roll out the ‘Peoples Network Wi-Fi’ service to the Council’s 17 libraries this summer. Previously, MLL had proposed installing Wi-Fi in ESCC care homes, however, the number of sites has since diminished with consultation on further reductions to services already under way.
At a time when the Council Library Service is under financial pressure while also experiencing growing demand for more digital services from local residents, ESCC decided the new initiative will provide greater community benefit by ensuring the digital inclusion of vulnerable people and the provision of essential resources for training and skills development, while also allowing residents to experience emerging technologies such as Generative AI.
Additionally, with high quality public Wi-Fi already installed and managed by MLL in most other ESCC buildings as part of MLL’s ongoing network services contract, the Council is confident that upgrading the libraries’ existing Wi-Fi to the new MLL solution will optimise service availability and technical support response times.
Keith Renshaw, Traded Services, Commercial and Partnerships Manager, East Sussex County Council, said: “Reliable high bandwidth public Wi-Fi is essential to ensuring our libraries remain an integral part of the community, delivering the services that residents value. Extending the SEG MLL solution to all our libraries is fully aligned to the spirit of social value funding by harmonising library connectivity requirements with the rest of the Council while improving our ability to support the Wi-Fi service for the benefit of the community.”
Gail Harvey, MLL’s Head of Public Sector Sales, added: “MLL is pleased to accommodate ESCC’s revised social value requirement within our existing SEG network services contract. We look forward to supporting the Council’s libraries with secure fit for purpose Wi-Fi infrastructure which is pivotal to enabling tangible benefits to the community.”
