Mobile Coverage and Services - Soft Market Testing Event

Understanding Mobile Coverage and Services - Soft Market Testing EventTo whom it may concern,Mobile phone usage and coverage remains an integral and expected service for consumers ubiquitously, regardless of their location.

Local Authorities recognise the value and importance of digital infrastructure which supports, not only their own digital delivery objectives, but furthermore, enables a wider social and economic value, particularly in the more rural county communities.Worcestershire County Council, in collaboration with Herefordshire Council, Shropshire Council and Staffordshire County Council, is organising a Market Testing event to understand services that the market can enable to capture, monitor and analyse mobile phone coverage and services (2G, 3G, 4G and 5G) across the specified geography, broken down to a more detailed level for each of the councils.

We would like to invite suitable organisations or collaborations to participate in this market consultation event which will allow the councils to investigate possible options (e.g. potential technologies, partnership arrangements and delivery models) to inform our approach, either individually or collectively, to support the development of a procurement strategy/strategies, leading ultimately to information that can help the Local Authorities improve mobile phone consumer experiences and coverage efficiencies from the marketplace.

The market testing event has been arranged for Monday 30 January 2023 and will be attended by senior representatives from each council to set out the collective and individual visions and opportunities including an open forum to answer supplier questions.

There will be individual opportunities for a one-to-one meeting after the main session ends (closed forum).

Please indicate whether you would like to take advantage of the one-to-one session in your response by emailing the address below.For additional context, Worcestershire County Council as the host organisation, has previously undertaken benchmarking assessments, in 2017 and 2019, to understand mobile coverage and performance across the county.

We now want to understand suggested methodologies to create an ongoing and dynamic view (data and voice) across participating counties.

That will allow us to engage with mobile network operators, Ofcom, DCMS etc. to establish plans to improve the experience of our residents and businesses.

Further information and details of the venue will follow shortly.

If you are interested in this market testing event, by responding to procurement@worcestershire.gov.uk before the 25st January 2023Please note, this is not a formal request for applications to tender at this stage.

Its purpose is to inform our procurement approach.