Parliament opens bids for IT network

The Houses of Parliament has opened bids to manage and support its IT and telecommunications networks, in contracts likely to be worth over £3m.

Parliament ICT (PICT) is looking for suppliers for a Wi-Fi network, and for data network and support services, according to a tender document published on Thursday.

"The new [Wi-Fi] network infrastructure must be resilient and have sufficient capacity to carry additional network traffic at a later date," said the document. "This will allow parliament to achieve its long term vision of network convergence."

Wi-Fi needs to be open to the public, MPs, and parliamentary staff, said the document.

PICT divided the framework for the contracts into two 'lots' — the first lot concerns contracts to replace data switches and telephony, and provide network access control. The second lot concerns a managed wireless data network.

Suppliers should start to set the networks up in September 2012. The contracts are to run for at least four years, said the document.