---
title: "Dark Fiber Maintenance"
ocid: "ocds-r6ebe6-0000784717"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-r6ebe6-0000784717"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-r6ebe6-0000784717.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-r6ebe6-0000784717.json"
source: "Public Contracts Scotland"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH"
published: "2024-12-11"
---

# Dark Fiber Maintenance

Buyer: UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-r6ebe6-0000784717

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[Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-r6ebe6-0000784717.json)

## Summary

The University of Edinburgh has awarded a contract for the maintenance of dark fibre to Jisc, under the title "Dark Fiber Maintenance." This contract pertains to the education industry category and covers the region UKM75, with the university's extensive estate reliant on connectivity through dark fibre cables. The procurement process has reached the award stage, having completed on 2nd December 2024, with the contract valued at £349,577. The maintenance contract spans an initial period of 12 months, with options for two further 12-month extensions. The procurement method utilised was limited, without a prior call for competition due to technical and logistical reasons, necessitating a uniform operational system managed by a single supplier.

This tender offers significant opportunities for businesses involved in fibre network maintenance, particularly those capable of providing integrated service management for large-scale educational institutions. The contract specifics indicate that companies specialising in network infrastructure support, particularly with experience in maintaining established fibre connections, would be well-suited for such opportunities. The requirement for seamless and resilient connectivity underscores the need for firms with robust technical capabilities and the ability to mitigate operational complexities. As such, businesses that can effectively manage fibre maintenance can benefit from consistent and potentially extended engagement, fostering long-term client relationships and growth in this sector.

## Notice

The University of Edinburgh has a large and disparate estate which relies on connectivity to the university network via dark fiber. This contract is for the maintenance of dark fiber and does not include installation.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

The University has a large and disparate estate which relies on connectivity to the university via fiber cables. The connectivity is essential for learning and teaching, research, security, door access control and building management. This procurement is for the maintenance and lease of existing dark fiber cables for an initial period of 12 months, with two optional extensions of 12 months.. Please note - as this procurement is an NCA, no quality weighting was required however the system will not allow for this to be null. This procurement is for an initial period of 12 months and includes the option to extend by two further periods of 12 months.

### Procurement Information

The fiber connections includes those that were installed at the Universities request to connect two specific locations, and those installed directly by the University as part of the EasMAN (Metropolitan Area Network), which the university ran for the East of Scotland and are now maintained by Jisc. The cost of the fiber installations has already been incurred and this solely relates to the maintenance. Changing supplier of these fibers would incur additional installation costs for every dark fiber connection. Additionally, there are some locations which can only be delivered by JISC due to requiring a resilient link which is configured to match the primary link allowing traffic to be re-routed seamlessly. The University require the fiber network connections to be provided by one supplier otherwise there would be disproportionate technical difficulties in the operation and maintenance of the service with multiple varying policies to navigate and different escalation paths and contacts. Additionally, the University require a consistent way of monitoring security and service alerts. If there were to be multiple providers of dark fibre connections, this would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in the operation and maintenance of the network as the University would be required to navigate multiple alerting and monitoring systems, different account management and technical and cyber security escalation paths. Jisc provide an over-arching and integrated service for all of the University's data connectivity. Splitting out the dark fiber contracts would result in additional complexity across technical, security, and account management functions. If there was to be a break in this service then it would impact the internet connection for the entire university through loss of resilience as well as cut service to over 2000 student bedrooms plus significant areas of the University including Western General and Easter Bush campuses plus other key buildings

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Public Contracts Scotland |
| Latest notice | https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=DEC520065 |
| Notice type | OJEU - F3 - Contract Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Goods |
| Procurement method | Limited |
| Procurement method details | Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 11 Dec 2024 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 2 Dec 2024 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £349,577 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Complete |
| Awards status | Not specified |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH |
| Locality | EDINBURGH |
| Post town | Edinburgh |
| Postcode | EH1 1HT |
| Country | Scotland |
| ITL 1 | TLM Scotland |
| ITL 2 | TLM1 East Central Scotland |
| ITL 3 | TLM13 City of Edinburgh |
| Local authority | City of Edinburgh |
| Electoral ward | City Centre |
| Westminster constituency | Edinburgh East and Musselburgh |
| Delivery location | TLM75 City of Edinburgh |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | JISC |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 32 - Radio, television, communication, telecommunication and related equipment

### Codes

- 32400000 - Networks

## Release History

- 11 Dec 2024 at 00:00 - Award - OJEU - F3 - Contract Award Notice - https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=DEC520065

## Documents

- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=DEC520065
  Dark Fiber Maintenance - The University of Edinburgh has a large and disparate estate which relies on connectivity to the university network via dark fiber. This contract is for the maintenance of dark fiber and does not include installation.

## Notice URLs

- http://
- http://www.ed.ac.uk
- https://api.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/v1/Notice?id=ocds-r6ebe6-0000784717

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-r6ebe6-0000784717. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-r6ebe6-0000784717.json.