The Spanish government is investing $400m in its communications and postal system via the Strategic Plan for Postal and Telegraphic Services. Computerworld Espana says that a lack of investment over many years has means that the Spanish communications system is obsolete and in a state of disrepair. The four-year plan will see the implementation of a digital network, and the General Secretary’s Office for Communications responsible for government communication services – will be based on an X25 backbone with an X400 electronic mail service. The X25 network alone will cost $20.8m, and the contract has gone to ICL Espana SA and Telefonica Sistemas SA. The seven primary nodes were established last year as well as the network management centre. ICL won 85% of the contract, using Northern Telecom Ltd equipment, while Telefonica Sistemas will install Tesys B data switches. Moving to digital from analogue will cost around $188.5m and the primary network will use radio links with up to 1,920 channels, while the secondary network will use fibre optic channelling. The electronic mail contract has yet to be awarded, but it looks likely to go to either Utecel SA or Inisel SA, although Telefonica may make a joint bid with the Post Office. It is estimated that the project may cost $108m with four fault-tolerant Message Transfer agents for 50,000 subscribers by 1993.
