Construction has begun on the first new mobile mast for the Emergency Services Network (ESN)’s Extended Area Service (EAS), at Boreland, near Lockerbie, Scotland.
In addition to providing mobile broadband services to the country’s emergency services, the mast will support commercial 4G services for local residents, businesses and visitors in the area.
Over the next six months, the programme expects 70 EAS sites to begin construction in the most remote and rural areas of Scotland, Wales and England.
Five companies won the £200 million contract (an Acquire, Design and Build Framework Agreement) for the delivery of EAS in November 2016: Lend Lease Construction (Europe) Ltd, Ericsson Limited, Clarke Telecom Ltd, Daly International (UK) Ltd, and Obelisk Communications Ltd (the last three of these were SMEs at the time of the contract announcement).
A Home Office spokesperson told The Telegraph in January this year that planning permission has been sought for 61 sites and granted for 24, and that 69 heads of terms (early stage agreements) had been signed.
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