Latest National Next Generation Ethernet news – Phase 3 PoP rationalisation
In August 2010 N3 launched a new set of Ethernet services supported by next generation network technologies.
In the last year, the National Next Generation Ethernet (NGE) programme has:
- Migrated 27 customers to NGE during Phase One of the programme by February 2011
- Migrated 139 customers to NGE since April 2011 as part of Phase Two
The Programme is forecast to complete a remaining 22 migrations by January 2012.
The deployment of the latest technology has enabled significant cost savings for the NHS. The programme will deliver savings in excess of £22m in the first 3 years. The services migrated or ceased as part of National NGE are forecast to deliver annual rental savings of c£9m.
The next steps for National NGE
N3 and NHS Connecting for Health are now starting to scope a possible next phase for the National NGE Programme - NGE Phase Three.
NGE Phase Three will have a much wider scope than Phases One and Two. N3 is evaluating the cost savings associated with both rationalising the England PoP estate and by migrating customers to NGE technology. Any PoP rationalisation and further customer migrations must deliver a Return on Investment by the end of the N3 contract.
National NGE Phase Three will consider a wider range of customer services for migration and could incorporate remaining dual Ethernet services, 2Mb private circuits and Ethernet + IP Stream services.
N3 have already completed a manual audit of the N3 Estate to establish a full inventory of services terminating at each PoP site. Initial analysis indicates that there are between 10 and 15 low utilised PoP sites that could be ideal candidates for inclusion in NGE Phase Three. Approximately 115 customer services terminate across these PoP sites and these are spread between 2Mb private circuits, Ethernet catalogue services and COIN and bespoke services.
Over the coming weeks, N3SP and NHS Connecting for Health will review the options available for NGE Phase Three to agree a potential scope and to develop a detailed business case. We will keep you up-to-date with developments via the Connected bulletin.
