National Network "Coupling II": In the final stretch - Bids submitted by telecommunications providers

It concerns more than 34.000 public buildings and 1.482 public hotspots - Save more than 40% for telecommunications services.

Σthe battle for National Network "Coupling II" the country's telecommunications providers are dropped after approval of invitations for the submission of tenders by General Secretariat for Public Administration Information Systems (GSPSD).

In particular providers should submit bids up to and April 7, 2020, in order to conclude 20 implementing agreements of the framework agreement on "CONNECTION II: Telecommunication services of Islands 1-8»Which were prepared in collaboration with the Information Society SA (IS SA), the implementing body of the project.

All major telecommunications service providers in the country (Cosmote, Forthnet, Wind, Vodafone) are participating in the tenders and will be invited to provide internet access services with speeds up to 1GB, and telephony in more from 34.000 buildings housing public bodies.

Specifically, the contractors that will emerge after the tender will have, will manage, will maintain and will support for public bodies, broadband telecommunication circuits, fixed telephony services, provision of backup access connections as well as 1.482 public hotspots for free internet access for the citizens. .

It should be noted that with regard to telecommunications services The country has been divided into eight "islands" and in the largest of them sub-sectors have been created - for example Attica has been divided into six sub-sectors - which the interested parties are invited to claim through auctions.

In particular, the OTE group and Vodafone Greece expressed interest in all the islands, Forthnet for 1, 6, 7 and 8 and Wind Hellas for 1, 4 and 6. "Framework agreements" have been signed by all 4 companies and now the Information Society SA will make "small" tenders for a package of buildings per island, which will be assigned to the provider who will submit the lowest bid.

Annual savings of over 150 million euros will bring Coupling II

The "Coupling II", which is a continuation and extension (quantitative and qualitative) of the existing National Network of Public Administration "COUPLING", which covers today 4.500 points of presence of bodies, started planning in 2009. Although it joined the previous one NSRF, did not proceed and disowned.

The first years of the SYRIZA government remained "frozen" even though the tenders had been completed and there were contractors. In the end, the restart of the proceedings took place about two years ago, but in essence its implementation started in July 2019 where the contracts with the providers were signed. According to the Ministry of Digital Governance, this complex project, is expected to be completed gradually over the next 3,5 years.

The project has a total budget of over 700 million euros including VAT, but also its planned extensions and avail for the state and taxpayers with its completion is estimated that will exceed EUR 150 million per year, while the resource savings for telecommunications services is expected to exceed 40%. In addition to the large-scale economies it will offer to the operation of the Public Sector - it is the first time the Greek State will know with absolute accuracy how much money it spends on the communication needs of its institutions, according to the Ministry of Digital Government - it will create the conditions for the better utilization of new digital services by the citizens.

The Coupling II is divided into two major "sections": the first concerns provision of telecommunications services in the Greek public administration and the second part concerns the part of infrastructures required to provide advanced telecommunications services.

It should be recalled that for the second part concerning the part of infrastructure, a total budget of more than 200 million, there have been previous contracts for the three sub-projects it includes. Particularly:

• Subproject 1 concerns creation of security infrastructuretelephony, teleconferencing and cabling, central network interconnection infrastructure, data center infrastructure and services related to centralized Internet access and quality of service and has a total budget of € 162 million, including the option of expanding the scope of by 25%. Project contractors who have signed a framework agreement are OTE and Logicom Solutions and "mini" competitions will follow.
• Subproject 2 concerns the central ISP and project support services (Service Level Agreement) and has a budget of around € 35 million, including a 30% extension of the physical object of the project. The contractor of this project is the consortium of companies OTE, Space Hellas, Unisystems and Intrasoft International.
• The subproject 3 concerning the data center and network interface (SIX), with a total budget of EUR 8 million for three years. The contractor of the project is WHAT Sparkle Greece. 

It is worth noting that the three above-mentioned sub-projects of "Coupling II" include eligible costs for funding from the European Union Development Funds. On the other hand, projects related to the provision of telecommunications services do not include eligible costs and will be borne by the state budget, as is the case to date for any kind of public expenditure on telecommunications services.

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