BT has secured a major £32 million network services contract with Sellafield, which will also see £2 million invested into community schemes in West Cumbria.

The deal between the technology and telecoms firm and Sellafield Ltd, operator of the UK’s largest nuclear site, will cover the running and maintaining of the company’s entire network services, as well as upgrades and updates to current equipment.

As part of the five-year contract BT has also agreed to provide £2 million of funding for local social value initiatives in the west Cumbria area which will be distributed using the expertise of the Sellafield Ltd social impact team to activities that align with their ‘social impact multiplied’ strategy.

Sellafield Ltd has a major impact in the region employing around 11,000 people at the west Cumbrian nuclear site and a number of off-site offices in Cumbria and Warrington.

The contract will include wide and local area network services, core and gateway services, as well as audio and conferencing, telephony and cyber security. Upgrades to the network will also enable Sellafield Ltd to take advantage of new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G in the future.

The deal is one of a number that Sellafield Ltd is letting as part of its multi-supplier model for ICT delivery. The model improves the flexibility and agility of the company’s IT services, and will see new tools, technologies and capabilities brought to Sellafield.

Ashish Gupta, MD corporate and public sector for BT’s Enterprise unit, said: “We are really pleased to have secured this major contract with Sellafield Ltd and look forward to working in partnership with them to create a network that is secure, fast, reliable and future-proofed, with the added capability to overlay new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G and IoT in the future.

“In a major boost for the local area, not only will we deliver digital transformation for Sellafield as part of the contract, but we’ll also provide a significant boost to the local community too. Over the life of the partnership, we will be investing £2 million into west Cumbria to help tackle the causes of inequality among the area’s most vulnerable people.”

Tracey West, social impact manager at Sellafield Ltd said: “It is really positive to see such a significant commitment from BT as part of this contract to support the delivery of our Social Impact Multiplied programme. I am looking forward to working with BT to maximise the local impact from their financial contribution.”

The BT network will incorporate Wi-Fi, a unified communications programme to consolidate conferencing solutions such as Teams and Skype, and in-built security to enable the handling and processing of sensitive data.