Scottish Water has gone out to tender with a contract for mobile and field connectivity services worth an estimated £16 million.

The water company is looking to procure the next generation of mobile and field connectivity services prior to the expiry of its current agreements in July 2020.

The services include the provision of business mobile, telemetry connectivity, mobile and field devices and connectivity advisory and innovation services.

Scottish Water say that while mobile and field connectivity services are often seen as a commodity service, it is a key enabler in how successful it will be as a business delivering services across Scotland. For example if as a business Scottish Water want to detect and reduce leakage in the network, then the IOT investment needs to be underpinned by a reliable and geographically spread mobile service. Scottish Water is looking to create a flexible and customised mobile service and field connectivity framework to meet its current and future needs that delivers the following key benefits:

• flexibility for workforce dependent on role type; in network options/availability, tariffs, devices, international roaming,
• mobile services that deliver an excellent customer experience
• geographical blockers reduced through a highly resilient and available network across Scotland
• no risk to telemetry/security assets and no downtime
• increasing value, decreasing costs
• ability to take advantage of new technologies

Initial contract term is 2 years with options to extend for a further 3 x 2 years.

Scottish Water is looking to appoint up to four suppliers to the framework agreement,

Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is 7^th August 2019 – click here to access the tender documentation.