Telecoms
Case reference FOI2025/01319
Received 12 December 2025
Published 16 January 2026
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Act, I would like to request the following information.
Telephone System
What make is your telephone system?
How old is the telephone system you operate?
How many users do you have?
Is your telephone system cloud based or on premise?
Can your switchboard operators transfer external incoming calls to all users across your estate?
How many extensions does your telephone system have?
Telecoms Estate
How much do you spend annually on telecoms?
Do you know how this is split into Voice Telecoms / Data Networking / Mobile Communications / Maintenance?
How many analogue lines do you have?
How many ISDN2 Services do you have?
How many ISDN30 Services do you have?
How many mobiles do you have?
Have you done anything about the Analogue Switch Off / Digital Switch On? If so, what have you done?
What are the contact details for the person who looks after telecoms and the costs associated with these?
Microsoft
How much do you spend annually with Microsoft?
How often do you review licensing costs?
Response
Telephone System
What make is your telephone system? - Mitel Contact Centre and MS Teams
How old is the telephone system you operate? Mitel – 2016, Teams - 2021
How many users do you have? - Contact Centre - 100 agents, MS Teams - 1470 staff
Is your telephone system cloud based or on premise? - Both
Can your switchboard operators transfer external incoming calls to all users across your estate? - Yes
How many extensions does your telephone system have? – 2700
Telecoms Estate
How much do you spend annually on telecoms? - £36,723 on Telephone services and £2,247 on mobile phones in 24/25
Do you know how this is split into Voice Telecoms / Data Networking / Mobile Communications / Maintenance? – Information Not Held
How many analogue lines do you have? - 22
How many ISDN2 Services do you have? - None
How many ISDN30 Services do you have? - None
How many mobiles do you have? - 262
Have you done anything about the Analogue Switch Off / Digital Switch On? If so, what have you done? - Yes, moved to fibre.
What are the contact details for the person who looks after telecoms and the costs associated with these?
Please note that the contact details of a member of staff have not been provided. We consider that this information constitutes personal data as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018 and is exempt from disclosure under Section 40 (2) 'Data Protection' of the Freedom of Information Act (2000).
Section 40(2) of the FOIA states that information is exempt from disclosure if it constitutes the personal data of a third party and its disclosure under the FOIA would breach any of the data protection principles under the Data Protection Act. We consider that disclosure of this information would contravene the first data principle that 'personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject'. The Council recognises that you have a legitimate interest in the disclosure of the information, however disclosure of the contact details would identify a junior member of staff who does not hold a senior or public-facing role.
We consider that disclosure would be unfair and unlawful, as the individual would not reasonably expect their contact details to be disclosed into the public domain. Whilst there is a general public interest in transparency, this does not extend to the disclosure of personal data relating to junior staff. Therefore, we consider that the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosure. Based on these arguments the information that has not been provided, should be withheld.
Microsoft
How much do you spend annually with Microsoft? - £382,000.00
How often do you review licensing costs? - When renewing the contract.
Documents
This is Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.