England’s Connected Heartland Framework - PIN Notice for 5G private network managed service along the East West Railway

This Prior Information Notice (PIN) concerns the pre-market engagement for Oxfordshire County Council’s (OCC) forthcoming procurement of a supplier to provide 5G standalone mobile private network managed services along the East West Rail Line between Bicester and Bletchley for England’s Connected Heartland 5G Innovation Region (ECH 5GIR).

Co-ordinated by OCC, ECH 5GIR was formed in 2023 to become one of ten regions to successfully bid for Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 5GIR funds.

ECH 5GIR is a partnership between councils in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, with a long-term vision for driving the use of advanced wireless across the councils’ region.

The DSIT 5G Innovation Regions (5GIR) programme is a UK Government initiative designed to foster the development and deployment of 5G and advanced wireless technologies across the country. With a funding pool of approximately £36million, the programme has identified ten regions, including ECH, to become hubs of digital innovation. The DSIT 5G Innovation Regions funding must be spent by 31st March 2025.

ECH 5GIR has ambitious plans for its 5G Innovation Region projects. These plans are highlighted in recent press releases regarding the successful award of the funding to Oxfordshire County Council as the representative of England’s Connected Heartland.

The Supplier will design, build and operate the network over the term of the contract. The Supplier will:

• Design and manage the implementation of the 5G Railway project’s network, including:

o Detailed survey and design of the network to meet the coverage and capacity requirements.

o Delivery of the 5G private network infrastructure

o Obtain all wayleaves, permissions and licences necessary for the Solution

• Maintain and manage the network over the term, including:

o Provide a Service Management function to proactively manage the availability of the Solution to agreed service levels, and to provide prompt remedial action in the event of failure.

o Maintain and manage the network.

o Ensure that the services continue to meet the security, information management and regulatory requirements.

• Work with the ECH partners to drive commercial sustainability of the network, including:

o Engage service users and drive adoption

o Document the delivery model and support its wider replication Additional information: Further information can be obtained from the Council’s procurement portal at sebp.due-north.com

The Council has some questions for potential bidders which are shown in the ECH 5G Railway PIN Supplier Response template. Potential Bidders are invited to return a completed template to allow the Council to take account of their feedback.

An online market information webinar will be held on 29th April 2024. All potential bidders are invited to attend to hear and discuss ECH 5GIR’s current procurement plans, to ask questions, and to suggest improvements that could be made to the plans.

The Council will provide an opportunity for short 1:1 discussions, so that commercially sensitive topics may be addressed privately. These private sessions will be conducted to the same agenda, with each organisation given equal access time to the Council.

Potential bidders wishing to attend the webinar can do so by registering through the following link:

events.teams.microsoft.com/event/7b3497ff-950e-… ↗ (Please paste URL into a browser for access OR press the link included in the accompanying documents found on the portal