ntl lose Met Police Contract.

Where does it say the ntl contract was 3 Billion ? All I can see is a reference to the 2.9 Billion Airwave digital system - and that's the whole system, not ntl's bit.

[Tristan]

Also, was this NTL (the bit home users are concerned with), or NTL Broadcast, which has recently been sold off?

[Neil]

FYI-I have changed the thread title back to the one I posted originally.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Where does it say the ntl contract was 3 Billion ? All I can see is a reference to the 2.9 Billion Airwave digital system - and that's the whole system, not ntl's bit.

The £2.9 billion Airwave digital system is supposed to provide the police with a secure voice network, and enable officers to file incident details from squad cars. But a recent three-month investigation concluded the system was not working properly.

Presumably ntl were awarded a contract to supply a system costing £2.9 billion, & because of their inability to deliver it efficiently The Met have taken them to court to terminate the contract (& got themselves awarded £25 million in the process)

Although I have changed the title of the thread back to what it was originally, I can't help but feel I was right to rename it "ntl lose £3 billion Met Police Contract", as that is exactly what has happened.....

[Edit]-In fairness (& hindsight), the article isn't crystal clear whether the "£2 .9 billion system" was ntl's offering or was already in place & ntl were adding to it, but what is clear is that they failed to deliver whatever it was they signed up to.

Originally Posted by Neil

[Edit]-In fairness (& hindsight), the article isn't crystal clear whether the "£2 .9 billion system" was ntl's offering or was already in place & ntl were adding to it, but what is clear is that they failed to deliver whatever it was they signed up to.

It's perfectly clear to me, because I have been reading about it for years in ComputerWeekly.

Ntl's bit is nothing like 2.9 Billion - that is the overall cost of the whole nationwide project, of which BT and Motorola are the main contractors.

See this article from September 2001.

http://www.computerweekly.com/Article106105.htm

BT is responsible for building and managing the national service throughout its 15-year, £2.9bn contract, with Motorola the main sub-contractor for the supply of Tetra digital system infrastructure

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by Tristan

Also, was this NTL (the bit home users are concerned with), or NTL Broadcast, which has recently been sold off?

ntl broadcast

[poolking]

So what part were NTL involved in?

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by poolking

So what part were NTL involved in?

ntl tendered and won some "local" contracts for police forces, some of this work was computer ie: control room, and other parts were installing the Tetra radios into police vehicles. I seem to remember their tender involved Cogent as a partner for at least one of the forces, I guess this would be a national thing. (correct me if I'm wrong)

As I said in an earlier post, ntl did I understand win some contracts and then possobly lost them at an early stage. Some of the people they had offered jobs to work on this project had some inside info and did not turn up for work on their proposed start date, leaving ntl with a shortage of skilled resources.

I guess some accepted the positions that had a start date some months away, and continued to seek a better position elsewhere!

[Pierre]

This was reported in last quarters results. It is not new "news". It practically wiped out ntl:Broadcasts profits for that quarter.

A liability that ntl are now rid of.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Pierre

This was reported in last quarters results. It is not new "news". It practically wiped out ntl:Broadcasts profits for that quarter.

A liability that ntl are now rid of.

And just to think, Broadcast were the jewel in the crown!

Broadcast was without a doubt a very professional operation before being bought out by CableTel, unfortunately it didn't take that many years under the current regime to loose the good reputation that they had built up and earned over decades.

I expect ntl had plenty of project managers on that project though, but not many engineers.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Escapee

And just to think, Broadcast were the jewel in the crown!

Broadcast was without a doubt a very professional operation before being bought out by CableTel, unfortunately it didn't take that many years under the current regime to loose the good reputation that they had built up and earned over decades.

I expect ntl had plenty of project managers on that project though, but not many engineers.

Actually the Broadcast set-uphas changed very little since "cabletel" bought it. The senior management and engineering field force, although reduced, has kept most of the experienced personnel. Mainly because they were too hard to get rid off. Most of Broadcast personnel that was made redundant in the last 7 years has been voluntary.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Actually the Broadcast set-uphas changed very little since "cabletel" bought it. The senior management and engineering field force, although reduced, has kept most of the experienced personnel. Mainly because they were too hard to get rid off. Most of Broadcast personnel that was made redundant in the last 7 years has been voluntary.

I am well aware of that Pierre, but generally the natural wastage because of the average workforce age has not been replenished with people of similar skills. I actually came under the broadcast banner for a period during one of the many re-orgs, at the time headends in our region became the responsibility of Broadcast. This was more of a paperwork excercise to stop a manager loosing his job than anything else, but I did soon realise how many of the broadcast employees felt about their employer. I also noticed the same later on when I worked on a project at Crawley court, there was a definite resentment from broadcast because they had become associated with these "Cable TV Cowboys" (To quote one comment)

I dont think things were helped when field staff were all on different terms and conditions, one guy would get almost double the callout rate of another, meal allowance was different and lodgings when working away. I know in the local region it was a big issue and some of the newer field guys left because of this double standard treatment.

Theres no doubt they have lost the professional image they once had, I believe that is down to the ntl philosophy where engineers are a very dirty word and like something stuck to the bottom of many managers shoes. It's a world where project managers, stats co-ordinators and any office administrator is held in high esteem.

I'm not trying to turn it into an argument, but it's just the way anyone with engineering focus would view things.