The U.K. government has awarded a $63 million contract to Vodafone to provide managed networks, wide area networks and satellite connectivity between the national gas operational control centers, data centers and remote sites.
The National Gas Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) Managed Networks include national gas core networks, which support monitoring and control across the gas transmission systems. The CNI Managed Networks also provide connectivity to gas distribution network systems for the exchange of telemetry data.
The contract will include “high-bandwidth, layer 2 connections, managed IP networks and LAN across Control Centres and Data Centres” as well as “routers, switches, firewalls and load balancers. Site connectivity is also provided to remote gas sites for control and telemetry,” according to the U.K. government.
Vodafone says it’s working with an Italian natural gas company to create a hybrid 5G mobile private network for the national energy sector, bringing connectivity to 23 of its plants. The hybrid infrastructure will improve 4G and 5G coverage both for the local population via the public network and for natural gas personnel inside the plants.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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