09 December 2024

The UK Government has signed a new £1.29 billion deal with BT (EE) to extend their operation of the 4G based Emergency Services Network (ESN) for another seven years.

Under the new £1.29 billion contract, BT Group will continue to build, maintain and develop critical mobile coverage and capabilities for ESN as it rolls out to support more than 300,000 users. The new contract also sees BT take management responsibility and provide coverage services for the Home Office’s Air-to-Ground (A2G) network, their Extended Area Services (EAS) sites, London Underground and specific road and rail tunnels.

“BT Group has been a committed longstanding partner for Britain’s Emergency Services Network (ESN). We’re proud to double down on this commitment today by broadening the scope of our agreement with the Home Office until 2032 and beyond – as the Government takes ESN from build through to delivery and operation of this critical network,” said Bas Burger, CEO of Business at BT. “Essential public services like these depend on a rock-solid digital foundation. Through our award-winning EE mobile network, we’ll continue to play a central part in delivering mission- critical, trusted communications for the Emergency Services on the ground, in the air, and wherever they need to operate – helping them connect for good and protect the communities they serve nationwide.”

The emergency services were originally due to have moved away from the previous Motorola-owned Airwave network several years ago. EE holds the main 4G based network contract, but the ESN covers a variety of different areas with other suppliers.

The Home Office originally expected that emergency services could start using the ESN in September 2017, allowing Airwave to be replaced by December 2019, but the contract ended up billions of pounds over budget and years behind schedule. Indeed, the Home Office is expected to have spent just under £2 billion on the ESN by March 2023, and a further £2.9 billion to maintain Airwave because of all the delays. A variety of problems have beset the project, from delays with developing the new end-user kit, to delays with the network build and competition disputes related to Motorola’s conflicting roles in the project etc. The project has since been effectively reset.

EE has already built a new dedicated core network for the ESN, ensuring priority EE connectivity to Emergency Services users at all times. The original contract also included upgrading more than 19,500 of EE’s existing 4G sites ready for ESN and expanding coverage in rural and critical operational areas etc.

The timetable for completion of the ESN has been pushed back to 2026 at the earliest, with the later date of around 2029 often being touted as a more realistic expectation. Meanwhile, maintaining Airwave into the 2030s is predicted to cost at least £250 million a year.