National Grid has signed £207 million worth of deals with Cable & Wireless for a new data network.

Under a 15 year, £108 million contract, the supplier will create and run an optical fibre network, which handles data for core operations, for National Grid.

Another five year, £99 million contract, covers a managed service for the energy company’s telecoms network.

Cable & Wireless will provide the relevant telecoms services, as well as a dedicated network management centre on a National Grid site. It will also supply technical support and incident management, and new network and performance management tools.