PITO advised on National Fallback Service

Lawyers from the London office of Morrison & Foerster have been advising PITO (Police Information Technology Organisation) on a major upgrade to their contract with O2 Airwave.

This new contract change improves the fallback arrangements for the Airwave service. The Morrison & Foerster team provided legal input and supported a multi-disciplinary team from

PITO itself that covered the technical and financial aspects of the project.

The Morrison & Foerster team was led by partner Alistair Maughan, technology procurement specialist and head of Morrison & Foerster’s Global Sourcing Group who commented:

“PITO awarded the original contract for Airwave back in 2000. Technology moves on, and one of the keys to success in large technology projects is to ensure that the contract develops as technology develops. By procuring this upgrade from O2 Airwave, PITO has shown both that the original contract that we put in place was a secure foundation for such a key national service, and that flexibility and service development can be successfully achieved. We are delighted to have helped PITO deliver on its aims.”

Used by more than 140,000 officers across police forces in England, Scotland and Wales including the British Transport Police, Airwave is the UK’s secure digital communications network for emergency and public safety organisations. At £2.9 billion, the Airwave contract was one of the UK’s largest IT and telecoms projects yet mounted. The contract change will deliver a dedicated stand-by duplicate switch network that fully replicates the existing Airwave switch network. This will be an unparalleled feature in the delivery of public safety communications anywhere in the world. Alongside the replicated switch network, the contract will also generate significant improvements to base station availability.