BT Is Back in Business
Having been at CES for the last week looking at the next generation of devices, I could not stop contemplating on the role of networks.
Everything is going to be connected and the need for secure and reliable networks will become a key differentiation for telcos. All are trying to tout their capabilities, but some struggle to deliver and execute. Arguably one telco here does stands out as underlined with a big win towards the end of 2024.
On 1 December, 2024 BT Group (BT) announced that it secured a new £1.29bn contract with the Home Office to provide mobile connectivity services for the Government’s Emergency Services Network (ESN) over the next seven years.
ESN will deliver fast, secure mission critical communications for emergency responders nationwide, including Police, Fire, Ambulance, and rescue services.
A significant deal for various and incredibly good reasons which I will explore in more detail. In a nutshell, it builds upon the close collaboration that already exists between BT and the UK Government, reinforces BT’s credibility and capabilities, and more importantly validates its connectivity prowess for scope to win future deals across both public and corporate sectors.
Connectivity Prowess
BT remains and is the clear UK national champion when it comes to connectivity (fixed and mobile). This long-awaited agreement is a testament to this belief reinforcing its position as the country’s most trusted connector.
While the deal focusses on all things connectivity, we should not underestimate the sheer scale of providing the critical communications for the UK and between the respective groups like Police, Ambulance, Fire, and other first responders. This will see BT replace the ageing Airwave network with mobile broadband connectivity. BT will now manage and provide coverage services for the Home Office’s Air-to-Ground (A2G) network, Extended Area Services (EAS) sites, London Underground and specific road and rail tunnels. It’s also set to be the country’s largest single deployment of coverage in indoor locations, to meet operational and coverage requirements for Public Safety Communications Services (PSCS) users.
These emergency response providers rely on robust, reliable, resilient communications with no lag to be able to respond as quickly as possible, in order to save lives and avoid any escalation of security events.
We’ve seen the growing importance being placed on security and robustness of connectivity due to recent unforeseen circumstances like attacks and the Grenfell report that make it clear, better interoperability and capacity is paramount to public safety.
Trusted Partner for Public Sector and Mobile Champion
The Home Office entrusted EE to build Britain’s Emergency Services with a resilient national mobile network for the first time in December 2015. This latest ESN deal further builds upon the EE agreement that was intended to replace the TETRA system from mid-2017.
However, the ESN launch experienced numerous well documented delays from the Lot 2 IT provider, Motorola, with new replacement supplier IBM recently announced (in collaboration with partners Samsung Electronics, Ericsson, Frequentis, Exponential-e and Palo Alto Networks).
It is important for the Home Office to have a trusted partner. Hence why it previously indicated that it intended to award EE a new contract, for the network rollout side to avoid delaying the programme further. EE’s original mobile services agreement for the ESN with the Home Office was due to expire on 31 December 2024.
It’s worth adding that as part of the ESN, it will comprise of a dedicated core, ensuring constant priority connectivity for users. In addition, leverage and upgrade across more than 19,500 of EE’s existing 4G sites ready for ESN and expanding coverage in rural and critical operational areas etc.
EE led the way as the first mobile network operator to launch 4G services in the UK. EE already has the UK’s biggest and most mature 4G network, and will expand coverage and enhance resilience to meet the Emergency Services’ critical communications requirements. At the time, EE committed to spend £1.5bn on its network up to 2017, and increased that investment in order to deliver the ESN. According to BT’s latest Annual Report it states that £2.46bn is spent on capacity/network overall.
Highlighting this investment in both fixed and mobile networks is paramount to securing trust and credibility. Equally this has been well recognised by quite a few accolades:
EE has won the Rootmetrics’ award for ‘Best Network’ for 11 years running (22 reports in total)
includes being named best, most reliable and best for 5G in 2024
best network in each of the 16 cities that Rootmetrics tests, and in each of the four nations
Umlaut found EE to be the best network for the 10th year running and scored over 900 points for the first time
All of this comes at the backdrop of the Competitive and Markets Authority giving the green light to approval for Vodafone and Three to merge their UK operations. The combined entity promises to be a fierce competitor with the scale to compete. One of the remedies includes a commitment to network investment of £11bn over the next few years.
Once up and running, likely before first half of 2025, the combined entity will be solely focussed on integrating operations. This will take considerable time, and success will be dependent on this integration. As seen with the most high-profile merger of VMO2, the combined business is still undergoing through the painful integration process which has led to its eye off the ball on network quality. Even the BT/EE integration took a good few years, but still maintained its focus on network quality. As I’ve said it will take many years before we see the true merits of the Vodafone/Three merger deal due to merging two mobile operations into one.
At this stage it is unclear what proportion will be spent on the network quality and any unforeseen circumstances related to the geo-political and uncertain macro-economic environments. All while this is happening, BT will be further improving its network to ensure mission critical networks to deliver ESN, which will again push the boundaries further for BT’s rivals.
There are other pretenders to BT’s network crown, but it still remains in pole position. For now, it seems apparent to me that BT will maintain its network leadership across both fixed and mobile networks for years to come. These unique assets will put it in good stead and provide a strong endorsement for other customers and businesses. While this latest ESN deal is for 7 years, it can only be assumed it will prove to be the foundation for a wide variety of other organisations looking to take advantage of their network quality with mission critical status, once ESN goes live.
BT already works with more than 200 NHS trusts, 43 police forces, 29 fire services and has supported the emergency services by handling all incoming 999 calls since 1937. It has a strong, long proven pedigree for serving UK plc.
A much-needed win
Having covered the broader TMT landscape now for about 25 years, this seems to be one of the biggest deals BT has secured at least in the last decade if not more. I’ve been critical of the BT’s ability to secure major deals and drive revenue; in particular the Business unit which all the key metrics have been heading in the wrong direction. Unquestionably, this deal changes everything and can kickstart its fortunes. More importantly it forms the basis to give others confidence in BT’s ability to deliver on clear and concise objectives.
Interestingly, this is a great demonstration of the new BT under Allison Kirkby, focussed on delivering for the UK. There are likely to be other parts of the ESN programme up for grabs, but securing this connectivity agreement sits at BT’s very core, which shows intent of focussing on its core competence: secure and trusted networks.