The first phase of the £60m Government Secure Intranet (GSI) project has been completed more than a year ahead of schedule, giving 350,000 public sector workers from more than 150 government departments access to a common network.
Networks company Energis announced that it has completed the migration of 350,000 government staff to the new GSI intranet last month, 16 months ahead of its 2007 deadline.
The value of the original £40m contract with Energis has increased by 50% to cover the need for increased capacity, including a doubling of bandwidth.
The GSI, which is already handling more than one million e-mails a day, will act as a common communications network for 154 central government departments, with comprehensive security for information sharing, and 100% availability for all users.