§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what interruptions of service his Department's telecommunications network has suffered since March. [129466]
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§ Mr. RammellThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has a Private Finance Initiative contract for the provision of its telecommunications services which gives an overall operational availability of at least 98.5 per cent. Monthly service reports confirm that this requirement is being met or exceeded. There are typically 60–70 failures per month on a network covering over 170 locations worldwide. Many of these failures last just a few minutes and some occur out of office hours. Around 40 per cent. of failures are caused by local in-country electrical supply problems. The introduction of dedicated satellite links to the FCO's more remote embassies has significantly improved network reliability.