Investments in Modernizing Telecom Services for Federal Organizations

Following a collaborative and competitive procurement process, Shared Services Canada has awarded a seven-year, $176M contract to TELUS to provide the Government of Canada with modern, network-based communications services.

This contract is an important part of Shared Services Canada’s efforts to consolidate and modernize the Government’s telecommunications infrastructure.

Currently, Shared Services Canada’s voice services are delivered via a mix of traditional landline telephones, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and mobile services, such as cellular and smartphones. Approximately 130 of the traditional landline systems are at end of life, some using technology that will be retired by the suppliers in 2018. This situation is costly to support and unsustainable in the long term. Service outages related to this legacy equipment can have a significant impact on the ability of departments to deliver programs and services to Canadians. The modernization of our communication systems will enable a modern work environment through new technologies that improve networking, productivity, mobility and collaboration.

Through this contract, Shared Services Canada will replace over 80,000 legacy landlines with modern, cost-effective and fully managed VoIP telephone services that will ensure service continuity for departments. This is in addition to the more than 100,000 VoIP lines already in use.

Departments using these services will be able to select the products and features that meet their business needs, including purchasing optional features such as voicemail-to-email integration, conference calling, instant messaging, desktop videoconferencing, and more.