5G Mobile Private Network - PIN for Pre-procurement market engagement

The purpose of this PIN is to advise all interested suppliers of Digital Catapult's intention of a future procurement for 5G Mobile Private Network. Digital Catapult has entered into a 5 year project with other 7 partners to deploy a private 5G network and run a technology and innovation acceleration programme in Northern Ireland. This pre-market engagement and the potential future procurement process specifically relates to a turnkey solution and support until Nov 2026 (or until end of the program) for 5G Mobile Private Network (5G MPN) at two adjacent sites located in Northern Ireland. Through this pre-market engagement process, Digital Catapult seeks to understand the turnkey solutions readily available in the marketplace to meet its current requirements; potential issues and limitations; realistic timescales for the service provision and delivery at Northern Ireland; clear R17 upgrade roadmap. Our intention is to procure a single contractor capable of meeting all our requirements, and a future procurement exercise shall be run in the next months under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. This pre-market engagement will help us to better understand the market and to help with specification and tender documentation development for our future tender. This Prior Information Notice (PIN) is issued solely for the purpose of conducting supplier pre-market engagement. Interested parties will not be prejudiced or advantaged by any response to this document, to the PIN, or by questions raised or lack thereof to them, or attendance to the supplier pre-market engagement event. This PIN does not constitute a call for competition.