Vodafone UK today announced that National Grid has awarded it a three year contract worth over £5m as its sole mobile voice and mobile data network provider in the UK.

National Grid needed a partner that could continue to provide a robust and resilient mobile voice and mobile data network.  Vodafone demonstrated that its network meets the high standards necessary to maintain the organisation’s business continuity strategy and to support its total voice and data traffic, and it was duly awarded the whole contract.

National Grid owns the high voltage electricity system in England and Wales and operates the system across Great Britain. It also owns and operates the high pressure gas transmission system, and four gas distribution networks, delivering gas to 11million homes and businesses in England.

The Vodafone service will help to maintain the high levels of service and rapid response rates that National Grid provides its customers by providing embedded SIMs in laptops, telemetry SIMs – for diagnosing potential issues within the electricity and gas network and mobile broadband devices ensuring field engineers have connectivity and access to company information at all times.

Steve Samways, IS asset and vendor manager, said: “Having completed a comprehensive tender process, Vodafone proved that they could provide us with a robust voice and data services across the UK and demonstrated that they understood the importance of reliable communications for National Grid. We look forward to working with Vodafone for the next three years”

Peter Kelly, Enterprise Director, Vodafone UK, concluded: “We conducted stringent testing to prove our network capabilities could meet and exceed National Grid’s expectations.  We are pleased that a company that is so essential to the UK’s energy supplies is relying on our network to ensure their workforce is mobile and able to operate, safe in the knowledge that we can connect them reliably to the information they need, wherever they are.”

As a result of the success of this project Vodafone will continue to identify innovative solutions to meet National Grid’s underlying business requirements whilst driving out costs.