Free Upgrades Available to GSi Customers
Buying Solutions is pleased to announce that the GSi Contract Extension has been signed with Cable&Wireless, extending the GSi service to August 2011. The GSi framework agreement allows contracts to expire six months after this date, so services to customers can be delivered under this contract until February 2012. GSi Notice 3/2008 (only available to existing GSi customers) provides information on the new pricing structure.
Under the GSi contract extension agreement all customers are able to upgrade their bandwidth without incurring installation fees until the 31st July 2008. Project management fees will still be charged as detailed in the GSi Notice. After this date customers will still be able to upgrade their GSi connection bandwidth according to the new tariff structure, but will have to pay the standard installation charges.
The annual rental charges have also been significantly reduced, and in many instances customers will be able to purchase a larger connection for the same cost as their existing connection.
Alternatively all customers have the option to remain on the same bandwidth of leased line, and enjoy the savings that have been agreed for each connection. The table below gives details of the savings, ranging between 10% and 81%, for each connection. In addition to this, GSX customers currently on a 128k connection can upgrade to 256k without incurring an increase in rental charges, or a project management charge.
Leased Line Charges on a 3 year GSi Contract |
Capacity |
Saving |
|
256K |
10% |
|
512K |
24% |
|
1M |
34% |
|
2M |
38% |
|
4M |
56% |
|
6M |
51% |
|
10M |
54% |
|
100M |
81% |
GSI and GSX customers wishing to upgrade their core service connection will also see a reduction in the normal annual rental charges. Additionally all customers who sign up to GSi2.5 will benefit from a reduction in the anti-virus service charges, and any anti-spam services subscribed to.
MessageLabs Product Charges - Per User Per Month |
Service |
Saving on 1 Year Contract |
Saving on 2 Year Contract |
Saving on 3 Year Contract |
|
Anti-Virus |
5% |
10% |
15% |
|
Anti-Spam |
5% |
10% |
15% |
If an organisation has over 2,000 users of the anti-spam service the prices are reduced further.
Another benefit of the extension agreement will be the additional services that will be provided under the GSi framework agreement. These will add even more value for GSi customers, and further enable government to deliver value to citizens. These will include a secure voice service, a secure video conferencing service, a secure webmail solution, improvements to the directory and enhancements to the existing GSi Remote Worker Service. ALFiE (the Accredited Large File Exchange service) will also make a big impact as an easy way for GSi customers to share large files securely. They will become available during the course of this year and we will keep customers up to date with progress.
In addition to the GSi notice, we have also published a FAQ document on the GSi Website. (these links are only available to existing GSi customers). If you wish to discuss how these new arrangements benefit your organisation, please contact the Cable&Wireless sales team via gsisales@cw.com or 0845 516 0245, option1.
Alternatively, please feel free to contact a member of the GSi team in Buying Solutions via gsi@buyingsolutions.gsi.gov.uk